Prologue
Toward Equality
(1968)
For a woman who wanted to become an American lawyer, the time before 1968 was a time of inequality. If you entered Harvard Law School before 1950, for example, you were male. Although some American law schools had admitted a trickle of women for decades, prior to 1950 Harvard practiced perfect discrimination: no women need apply.

Part One
Scrutiny (1970 – 1975)

1
The Story of Paula Wiesenfeld
Late in 1972 a new professor at Columbia Law School, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, heard the story of Paula and Stephen Wiesenfeld. Immediately she knew that their sad tale offered the legal case she need. By taking their story to the Supreme Court of the United States, she could accomplish her greatest professional goal: to eliminate what she called "gender lines in the law." Ginsburg in the early 1970s was making the most profound attack on sexist law in the history of the American legal system.