Pinstripes & Pearls: The Women of the Harvard Law Class of '64 Who Forged an Old Girl Network and Paved the Way for Future Generations - Tapa blanda

Beneficial Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and author of "Right and Wrong" and "Contract as Promise"

A tough and tender look at how we were, how we are, and how we got from one to the other. Fascinating for those who have made the journey, this book has lessons for those who haven't had to.

Judith Areen

Dean, Georgetown University Law Center, and author of "Cases and Materials on Family Law"

This book is a must-read for women considering law school and for those who have already graduated. These women faced daunting barriers and personal hardship, yet they persevered. Their stories reveal the good news that it is possible to find our way through the pain of discrimination with humor rather than self-pity, and joy rather than bitterness.

Andrea Mitchell

Chief foreign correspondent, NBC News, and trustee, University of Pennsylvania

"Pinstripes & Pearls" is both a poignant history of the struggles of the women in the Harvard Law School class of 1964 and an eye-opening read for new generations of women trying to navigate their professional and personal worlds. One of the enduring lessons is how reinforcing and supportive these women are to each other, against obstacles that today's graduates would find overwhelming. This account is an important history of a critical time in America as well as a unique testimony to one woman's intelligence and grit.

Lynne Cheney

Author of "America: A Patriotic Primer"

The women in Harvard Law's class of 1964 were pioneers, and Judith Richards Hope has done us all a favor by recording their lives. She sets forth their stories in fascinating detail, from the early sense of discontent that these women felt for the role society had assigned them, to the matter-of-fact ways in which they dealt with the sexist worlds of law school and the legal profession. As Hope tells it, these women were not complainers. They didn't sue and they didn't march. Instead, they coolly measured the obstacles they faced and tried to surmount them, usually successfully, but not always. Hope's honest account of the conflicts these bright women faced as they tried to balance professional and personal lives speaks eloquently to the challenges that young women professionals still face today.

Charles Fried Beneficial Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and author of "Right and Wrong" and "Contract as Promise" A tough and tender look at how we were, how we are, and how we got from one to the other. Fascinating for those who have made the journey, this book has lessons for those who haven't had to.

Andrea Mitchell Chief foreign correspondent, NBC News, and trustee, University of Pennsylvania "Pinstripes & Pearls" is both a poignant history of the struggles of the women in the Harvard Law School class of 1964 and an eye-opening read for new generations of women trying to navigate their professional and personal worlds. One of the enduring lessons is how reinforcing and supportive these women are to each other, against obstacles that today's graduates would find overwhelming. This account is an important history of a critical time in America as well as a unique testimony to one woman's intelligence and grit.

Lynne Cheney Author of "America: A Patriotic Primer" The women in Harvard Law's class of 1964 were pioneers, and Judith Richards Hope has done us all a favor by recording their lives. She sets forth their stories in fascinating detail, from the early sense of discontent that these women felt for the role society had assigned them, to the matter-of-fact ways in which they dealt with the sexist worlds of law school and the legal profession. As Hope tells it, these women were not complainers. They didn't sue and they didn't march. Instead, they coolly measured the obstacles they faced and tried to surmount them, usually successfully, but not always. Hope's honest account of the conflicts these bright women faced as they tried to balance professional and personal lives speaks eloquently to the challenges that young women professionals still face today.

Judith Areen Dean, Georgetown University Law Center, and author of "Cases and Materials on Family Law" This book is a must-read for women considering law school and for those who have already graduated. These women faced daunting barriers and personal hardship, yet they persevered. Their stories reveal the good news that it is possible to find our way through the pain of discrimination with humor rather than self-pity, and joy rather than bitterness.

-- from the Introduction

To illustrate the challenges facing women of her generation, author Judith Richards Hope describes the lives and careers of a handful of barrier-breaking women, including herself, from Harvard Law School's pivotal class of 1964, who fought and overcame preconceptions and prejudices against their entering what, at the time, was a male vocation. Despite their struggles in law school and in the workplace, they maintained their ambition and ultimately achieved remarkable success. They look back on law school as a time of enormous personal and intellectual growth.

In 1961, before modern civil rights legislation and women's liberation, women were generally regarded as undesirable candidates for law studies. Most law firms believed that women couldn't keep up the pace, that they couldn't avoid emotional outbursts, and that their place was in the home. Nonetheless, 48 women applied to Harvard Law that year, 22 were accepted, and 15 graduated in a class of 513. The rigorous training at Harvard Law taught these women to survive and to thrive in one of the toughest, most competitive professions in the country. It took grit, confidence, resourcefulness, thick skins, and a certain irreverence for them to succeed. These qualities propelled Judith Richards Hope and her classmates into some of the most prominent careers of their generation, yet they did not sacrifice their more traditional female roles. Their achievements have helped pave the way for women of subsequent generations.

Pinstripes & Pearls illuminates the extraordinary trajectories of these women -- among them Pat Schroeder, Judith W. Rogers, and Hope herself -- who forged an old-girl network and became lifelong friends. Through compelling and often witty anecdotes, unprecedented archival research of Harvard records, and revealing testaments to the difficulties faced by women harboring serious career goals, Pinstripes & Pearls personifies in these women the emergence of a new type of American female, one whose "goal is to reach the destination, not just to avoid humiliation on the way."