In Defense of Women

A Champion Of WomenS Rights Reflects On Her Illustrious Career Litigating Groundbreaking Cases On Reproductive Rights Sexual Harassment And Violence Against Women. In The Boys Club Climate Of 1975 Nancy Gertner Launched Her Career Fighting A Murder Charge On Behalf Of Antiwar Activist Susan Saxe One Of The Few Women To Ever Make The FbiS Most Wanted List. What Followed Was A Storied Span Of Groundbreaking Firsts As Gertner Threw Herself Into Criminal And Civil Cases Focused On WomenS Rights And Civil Liberties.. Gertner Writes For Example About Representing Clare Dalton The Harvard Law Professor Who Famously Sued The School After Being Denied Tenure And Of Being One Of The First Lawyers To Introduce Evidence Of Battered WomenS Syndrome In A First-Degree Murder Defense. She Writes About The Client Who Sued Her Psychiatrist After He Had Sexually Preyed On Her And Another Who Sued Her Employers At Merrill LynchShe Had Endured Strippers And Penis-Shaped Cakes In The Office But The Wildly Skewed Distribution Of Clients Took Professional Injury Too Far. All Of These Were Among The First Cases Of Their Kind.. Gertner Brings Her Extensive Experience To Bear On Issues Of Long-Standing Importance Today: The General Evolution Of Thought Regarding Women And Fetuses As Legally Separate Entities Possibly At Odds; The Fungible Definition Of Rape And The Rights Of Both The Accused And The Victim; Ever-Changing Workplace Attitudes And Policies Around Women And Minorities; The Concept Of Abetting Crime.. With Wit Heart And Honesty Gertner . . . Looks Back On The Decades Just After FeminismS Third Wave When Issues Like Abortion For Poor Women Shield Laws For Rape Victims Battered Wife Syndrome And The Rights Of Lesbians To Adopt Children Were Unconventional To Say The Least.Renee Loth The Boston Globe. This Is A Fascinating Memoir Of A Life Lived In The Law With Passion Guts Humor And Great Skill.Linda GreenhousePulitzer PrizeWinning Reporter And Author Of Before Roe V. Wade