On Monday, May 7, in the
Washington History Seminar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC,
Jill Norrgen, professor emerita of political science,
John Jay College of Criminal Justice and
University Graduate Center, CUNY, will present
Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers:
Beginning immediately after World War II and continuing through the 1970s changes in U.S. public policy, along with the impact of the second women’s movement, and women’s increased reproductive control, upended longstanding resistance to female participation in the profession of law. Award-winning legal historian Jill Norgren describes the lives of 100 women lawyers who were on the front lines fighting for access to law schools and good legal careers. Her book, based on oral interviews carried out by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and the Senior Lawyers Division, reveals the profound changes that began in the late 1960s, ending the near-exclusion of women from law schools and slowly increasing the career opportunities available to them. In her talk Norgren uses the words of these trailblazers to tell their stories, words that evoke pain as well as celebration, somber reflection, and humor.
