Equal: Women Reshape American Law by Strebeigh, Fred

Fred Strebeigh

Equal: Women Reshape American Law

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As late as 1967, men outnumbered women twenty to one in American law schools. With the loss of deferments from Vietnam, reluctant law schools began...

As late as 1967, men outnumbered women twenty to one in American law schools. With the loss of deferments from Vietnam, reluctant law schools began admitting women to avoid plummeting enrollments. As women entered, the law resisted. Judges would not hire women. Law firms asserted a right to discriminate against women. Judges permitted discrimination by employers against pregnant women. Courts viewed sexual harassment as, one judge said, "a game played by the male superiors." Violence against women seemed to exist beyond the law's comprehension.

In this landmark book, Fred Strebeigh shows how American law advanced, far and fast. He brings together legal evidence and personal histories to portray the work of concerned women and men to advance legal rights in America. Equal combines interviews with litigators, plaintiffs, and judges, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catharine MacKinnon, along with research from private archives of attorneys who took cases to the Supreme Court, to narrate battles waged against high odds and pinnacles of legal power. Equal, in the words of Professor Suzanne A. Kim of Rutgers Law School, is a book for "anyone interested in how each individual can improve our society through compassion, drive, and creativity."

Fred Strebeigh has written for The Atlantic, Smithsonian, and the New York Times Magazine. He teaches nonfiction writing at Yale University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Genre
Nonfiction
Pages
594
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date
February 13, 2009
ISBN
9780393065558