In the summer of 1969, from big cities to small towns,
young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University
for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating
"one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its
doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a
huge step forward for women's equality in education.
Or was it?
The
experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto
Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed.
Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects,
and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed
to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an
overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. Yale Needs Women is
the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning
traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities
that would carry them into the future. Anne Gardiner Perkins's
unflinching account of a group of young women striving for change is an
inspiring story of strength, resilience, and courage that continues to
resonate today.
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