Equal

Starred review from December 1, 2008
Beyond the hot-button issue of abortion, feminist lawyers and scholars have worked a quieter but equally far-reaching revolution in law and jurisprudence, argues this fascinating history. Strebeigh, a journalist who teaches nonfiction writing at Yale, chronicles 40 years of changing law on employment discrimination, sexual harassment and rape, as a growing movement of women lawyers, professors and judges challenged a primordial legal sexism. (Courts, for example, used to insist that rape victims fight their attackers almost to the death to prove lack of consent.) The author lucidly explains the intricacies of evolving legal doctrine (the federal Violence Against Women Act hung awkwardly from the Constitution's commerce clause) and the devilishly complex litigation strategies lawyers pursued to insinuate new concepts into case law. But his account is really the story of an insurgency—percolating up from consciousness-raising groups and feminist law school seminars; pioneered by theorists like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catharine Mackinnon; fought out by plucky, underpaid lawyers working in hostile courts; and climaxing in constitutional and political showdowns deep inside the Supreme Court. The result is a keen assessment of how far the law has come—and of the struggle that propelled it.

February 15, 2009
Determined women attorneys like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Harriet Rabb, and Catherine MacKinnon and their allies fought to improve women's rights from the 1960s to the present. Much like the civil rights cases of the 1950s, they strategically selected cases for courts to examine certain issues, develop standards of scrutiny for gender, and thereby advance women's rights incrementally. They also worked to pass legislation, taking on issues like discrimination in social security and disability benefits, sexual harassment, discrimination in law schools and the legal profession, and violence against women. Journalist Strebeigh describes the people, cases, triumphs, setbacks, and behind-the-scenes strategizing and decision making in organizations and courts. This is eye-opening stuffthe situations many women plaintiffs faced are astounding from the perspective of 2009. Strebeigh's book is accessible for undergraduates and nonspecialist readers and a good selection for university or public libraries.Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs.

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