Cynthia Fuchs Epstein’s classic text Women in Law is now available as an e-book for Kindle, Nook, and iPad, with a new introduction by Deborah Rhode. Here is an excerpt from the intro:
When Cynthia Fuchs Epstein published her pathbreaking account of ‘Women in Law,’ their status in the profession was separate and anything but equal…. Over the last three decades, much has changed but too much has remained the same. Now, about half of new lawyers in the United States are women and they are fairly evenly distributed across substantive areas. Yet significant gender disparities persist. Women constitute about a third of the lawyers in large firms, but only about 17 percent of equity partners. Attrition rates are almost twice as high among female associates as among comparable male associates…. When Epstein published ‘Women in Law,’ part of what attracted its widespread acclaim was its originality; it was among the first in what has now become a rich literature on gender and diversity in the profession. Indeed, the fact that the book is being reissued testifies not only to its enduring scholarly value, but also to the attention that the issue now commands…. Her book helped inspire that movement, and our profession remains deeply in her debt.
It is also available on Apple’s iBooks.
-Bridget Crawford
