Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers

Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers is an inspirational story of individual successes and even more important, a historical analysis of the march toward improved gender equality in America. * Trial Magazine * I cannot even begin to do justice to these stories, so I recommend it as reading for everyone. I have always considered Ruth Bader Ginsburg an inspiration, but now I know the names and stories of other trailblazers to admire: Ruth Abrams, Joanne Garvey, Constance Harvey, Herma Hill Kay, Shirley Hufstedler, Belva Lockwood, Janet Reno, Catherine Roraback, Norma Shapiro, Ada Shen-Jaffe, and so many more... Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers is not just the story of what women went through to attain their current place in the law, but an empowerment to keep the fight for equality going strong. This book is highly recommended for law school libraries. -- Law Library Journal [A]n interesting look at the lives of women who joined the legal profession in the middle and later part of the last century...[I]t offers tales both fascinating and frustrating about barriers and burdens women suffered as they fought their way into the legal profession -- The Champion This remarkable volume collects the life and career stories of more than a hundred female lawyers, all part of the so-called 'second wave'of the movement, that is the period after women gained suffrage and other full citizenship rights. These are women who have written important scholarship, served as Deans of major institutions, risen to the highest ranks of law practice while also devising new forms of public service---their stories mark a true revolution in the profession. The production of the book itself is as remarkable as the content a vast collaborative effort of oral history taking and writing, now organized with an historians fine hand. It will be useful for years to all scholars of the legal profession as a model and an inspiration. -- Barbara Babcock,Crown Professor Emerita, Stanford Law School, author of Fish Raincoats, A Woman Lawyer's Life Jill Norgren has written a compelling portrait of women on the front lines of the ongoing struggle for gender equality in the legal profession. Her book eloquently describes a central feature of the civil rights revolution that continues today, and reminds us not to take for granted the hard-won victories of those whose stories she tells. -- John Shattuck,author of Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America's Response The words of the women lawyers here tell an inspiring yet sobering story of the path women lawyers blazed in the 20th century. They all, even the most successful and influential, faced the roadblocks of gender discrimination as they made their way through law school and up the professional ladder, and as they confronted the enduring challenge of balancing their personal and professional lives. Their stories are both a window into the past and a beacon for the future, revealing just how far women lawyers have advanced as well as what lies ahead in the 21st century. -- Virginia G. Drachman,author of Sisters in Law: Women Lawyers in Modern American History