Author Fred Strebeigh discusses his new book Equal: Women Reshape American Law on Thursday, May 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

As late as 1967, men outnumbered women twenty to one in American law schools. During the Vietnam War, more law schools admitted women to avoid plummeting enrollments. As women entered, the law resisted. Judges would not hire women. Law firms asserted a right to discriminate against women. Judges permitted discrimination against pregnant women. Courts viewed sexual harassment as, one judge said, "a game played by the male supervisors."

Against the odds, women fought to reshape the law. Fred Strebeigh has interviewed litigators, plaintiffs, and judges, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catharine MacKinnon, and researched in their private archives as well as those of other attorneys who took cases to the Supreme Court to make the law equal and just for all.

Strebeigh has written for The Atlantic, Smithsonian, and The New York Times Magazine. He teaches nonfiction writing at Yale University.