[Book Review] - Yale Needs Women
Timed perfectly to the 50th anniversary of the first women to enter Yale as students, Anne Gardiner Perkins has written a captivating oral history in her new book (to be released in early September) - Yale Needs Women. The book is focused on five Yale Women and many of the other supporting individuals who made coeducation a reality at Yale. Perkins has done what many of us can only dream of doing and taken the research for her dissertation to the next level by turning it into a highly readable, pleasurable book.
The stories of the women - five key players and many supporting players - are wound nicely together around the events that were happening in the late 60s and early 70s including the Black Panther trial and Vietnam War protests. The stories are rich and chronicle many intricacies of these women's lives. The story also places these women's lives in both the context of higher education writ large and in the context of the national arguments on women's rights, abortion, sexual crimes against women, and more.
Woman in higher education today have gained much because of the individual struggles these women faced. I truly appreciate what they have done and the beautiful way Perkins has captured their stories.