Overall, what do you think of Yale Needs Women?

Overall, what do you think of Yale Needs Women (no spoilers in this thread, please)?

I loved the book because it is set in 1969, and I was 19 years old then. Even though I was not a feminist at that time, the struggles that the women faced were well documented in this story. These women were pioneers in the area of equality. I came from a background that women get married and raise a family so reading this made me realize that I was in the good little girl camp and did not challenge the norm. It was uplifting to read about the battle, and it was a really hard struggle for women to get ahead at that time. Anne Gardiner Perkins was the woman that Yale needed to accomplish what she did.

I loved this book. This is a history that everyone needs to read. I worked at Yale after college (I did not go to college at Yale). Once an older man came to our office and in the course of conversation said that the worse thing Yale ever did was to admit women. This was in 1979.

Very good book. Important documentation of women’s struggles for equal standing.

I really enjoyed the book. I appreciated the individual women's stories as well as the chronicling of history during the time and the actions of the university and individuals at the university.

I thought this book was terrific. Having lived through that period it was easy for women's issues to get lost in the Viet Nam War, the protest and civil rights. That and being on the west coast where the universities were open to women, it was hard to believe the East Coast would be so antiquated. Even Duke in NC was admitting women. The book speaks to the recent history of gender bias.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I was afraid it would be somewhat dry, but it was fascinating from start to finish. Excellently written non-fiction!

I have to tell you that I COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN! I was not at all expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did and read it straight through in about two days. Over the past year and a half I have been reading a lot of non-fiction, and I realize that I have always naively and idealistically assumed that what is fair and right and just are always embraced and celebrated because people are basically good- -right? Women may have been admitted into Yale in 1969, but women were NOT REALLY a part of Yale. I was horrified to read many of the experiences of the women in the first class of Yale. This was the end of the Civil Rights era for goodness sakes- -our country was moving forward, becoming more open and accepting...

I was one in 1969. But as I look around me 50 some years later, I realize that there is just as much work to be done today as there was then. Yale STILL needs women!

PS After finishing the book, I went ahead and ordered the "Smash the Patriarchy" t-shirt I've had my eye on for awhile. :) I've also begun a list of further reading on women's issues/feminism. (I'd love some recommendations.)

I thought it was an excellent book! However, some of her stories rambled into inconsistent paths leaving me wondering about a storyline that just stopped. It could have used some tougher editing in parts. However, it was fascinating as this was my history as well. Graduating in 1968, attending NCSU, where there was only one dorm for women. Unable to get into UNC because of gender quotas, mostly filled with women athletes. And they bussed in students from the women's colleges in Raleigh as they did at Yale; we were considered low quality! But I never felt isolated. It was a big campus.

The same story continued in my professional experience where senior positions at the National Science Foundation were filled with PhD women scientists who couldn't get faculty positions at Yale, other than postdocs or teaching, because their husbands were already tenured faculty.

I really enjoyed the book! Wish I would have been aware of what was going on, would have loved to be part of it! I know the fight that females had during this time, I was one of the mouthy ones who had had enough of of discrimination. Back then I was called a "pushy" female with the "big Mouth." I strived my whole professional life to break the barriers!

This was a very good read. I expected to learn from it but was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I was on the Athletic Board when Title IX was passed. The boys in change did everything they could think of to contort Title IX into maintaining the status quo. Looking at professional soccer training facilities in the last few months shows how much of the nonsense is still alive and well. I loved that blowback and the egg on the NCAA's face.

Fascinating. So many of us were in the dark about the gender politics in
education. As late as 1989 women were not allowed into Rotary Clubs. I was one of the first women included in our local Rotary and several men quit because of the inclusion of women. I was in a rural community on the Oregon Coast when my daughter was in HS. The high school principle ignored title IX until I threatened to go to Salem and report what was going on in athletics. We are still not receiving equal pay for equal work. It is a long uphill battle.

I found it to be a very interesting book and a part of women’s history that I knew nothing about.

I liked it even more than I thought I would. I graduated from Wellesley, an all-women’s college, in 1969, in Hillary Clinton’s class. A book was written about us entitled Rebels in White Gloves, indicating our status as women with a foot in the “gracious living”camp and one in the “feminist” camp. Our commencement speaker was the Republican Senator of Massachusetts, Edward Brooke. After he spoke, Hillary got up and spontaneously addressed us and our parents far more passionately than Sen. Brooke did. As the Yale book points out, women who might otherwise have gone to Smith, Vassar, Wellesley, or Mt. Holyoke were now able to go to places like Yale and Princeton. In 1969 higher education was beginning to recognize that women, too, could be leaders. Women knew that for years.

Excellent! I (usually) love anything that has to do with the late 60's/early 70's. I find it to be such a fascinating time! I should've been born in a different era ;)

This book read like a dissertation, which could have been boring, but the author did a wonderful job of including real personal stories to keep it interesting. Also, I loved the photos!

It was an interesting read. I had just graduated from college in 1966 and was unaware of the struggles those first women endured at Yale. The author presented their stories in an appealing way.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I found myself growing attached to the stories and plights of the women on which the author focused. It was also incredibly enlightening. I have read about the hardships that women faced when schools like Yale went coed, but this brought made those stories come alive.

Overall I thought it was an interesting book, another one of those parts of our history that you don't really think about because today women aren't prohibited from attending those colleges. But there had to be a first.

I thought this book was fantastic and tore through it. I then loaned it to my 82 year old mother who also loved it. I did find it a bit disconcerting that these women were only a few years older than me. I attended Cornell 1980-1984 and never felt the same imbalance, perhaps because women had been admitted since 1870. As a west coaster I remember being told women from Wells College (at that time women only) were bused in and thought it was the strangest thing!

It’s funny you mention Cornell’s diversity. My daughter attended Bryn Mawr. Earlier last century they would not admit African American women and would instead funnel them to Cornell, where they did not have the same bias.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I found it extremely readable and so very fascinating. I learned so much. Being born in the 1980s, I had a much different experience than the women before me, so I found it quite interesting to read and learn about their experiences.