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Pinstripes & Pearls: The Women of the Harvard Law Class of '64 Who Forged an Old Girl Network and Paved the Way for Future Generations
by: Judith Richards Hope

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Collectible Price: $26.00
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 340.07117444
EAN: 9780743214827
ISBN: 074321482X
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: January 07, 2003
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: January 07, 2003
Sales Rank: 212850
Studio: Scribner

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Editorial Review:

Book Description:

'[W]e didn't fully understand what we were getting into -- what obstacles we would encounter, what trails we would blaze....We just knew, from an early age, that we wanted both to serve our country, help make our world a little better and a little safer -- just like our fathers and our brothers -- and to marry; rear honest, happy children; and lead fulfilling personal lives -- just like our mothers.'

-- 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.'

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Not Perfect, but it's a Great Read
As someone who will start law school in the fall, I was interested in Judith Richard Hope's Pinstripes and Pearls as much for the perspective on the law school experience as for the historical perspective on being in one of the first Harvard Law School classes with women. The book is at its best when it describes the appalling way the women were sometimes treated, both in law school, and as they entered the work force, and how they banded together to survive in the legal profession. It's a little weaker when it strays from that central storyline, however it's still a good read.

Hope documents her experience, and that of her 19 female classmates, as they entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1961, in a class of 513 students. The book begins by providing an outline of the history of women at Harvard Law School. I was surprised to learn that Harvard was one of the last law schools to admit women, ... Read More

Rating:

- An Exceptionally Beautiful, Moving and Interesting Book
Before commenting on this book, let me mention that I am a graduate of Harvard Law School in 1971. By then, women were about 10 percent of the class, and some of the problems described in this book had been overcome. But many had not. Since then, I have had the pleasure of attending many of the special celebrations on the anniversaries of the admission of women to the school on September 1950. But in those gatherings, I have heard few stories as moving as the ones in this book.

This book moved me even more than the fine memoir, One-L, that has become a classic concerning legal education.

Ms. Judith Richards Hope is one of the most successful graduates of Harvard Law School in the last 40 years. Many in her situation would have chosen to write a memoir, basically recounting how she did so well. I admire her for choosing to write the story of all the 20 women in her class (1964) and also including ... Read More

Rating:

- This book is amazing!
If you are a woman who struggles to balance career aspirations with a dedication to domestic ideals this is a must-read book. In an honest and compassionate manner Hope details the lives of the women in her class. These are women who listened to their intellectual hearts despite society's pressure to hold them back. I am inspired!

Rating:

- A Great Anecdotal History
As someone who was born after Ms. Hope entered law school at Harvard, this personal history of the struggles against the overt and covert discrimination women faced in the '60's is an eye opener. I can't imagine dealing with the unabashed sexism that Ms. Hope and her contemporaries encountered, yet here it is, detailed in anecdote after anecdote.

The book is a series of personal histories that enlighten all of us about the struggles women and men alike went through to get to the precarious balance of sexual politics that we live in today. In the telling, Ms. Hope illuminates the conflicts that women experience to this day while trying to balance work and family. One of the most painful passages of the book reveals Ms. Hope's own children's ambivalence about her accomplishments as a lawyer, mother and woman.

This book is not just an opportunity for 60-something lawyers to reminisce about their salad days. ... Read More

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