{"product_id":"in-defense-of-women-isbn-9780807011485","title":"In Defense of Women","description":"\u003cb\u003eA champion of women’s rights reflects on her illustrious career litigating groundbreaking cases on reproductive rights, sexual harassment, and violence against women\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the boys’ club climate of 1975, Nancy Gertner launched her career fighting a murder charge on behalf of antiwar activist Susan Saxe, one of the few women to ever make the FBI’s Most Wanted List. What followed was a storied span of groundbreaking firsts, as Gertner threw herself into criminal and civil cases focused on women’s rights and civil liberties.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGertner writes, for example, about representing Clare Dalton, the Harvard Law professor who famously sued the school after being denied tenure, and of being one of the first lawyers to introduce evidence of Battered Women’s Syndrome in a first-degree murder defense. She writes about the client who sued her psychiatrist after he had sexually preyed on her, and another who sued her employers at Merrill Lynch—she had endured strippers and penis-shaped cakes in the office, but the wildly skewed distribution of clients took professional injury too far. All of these were among the first cases of their kind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGertner brings her extensive experience to bear on issues of long-standing importance today: the general evolution of thought regarding women and fetuses as legally separate entities, possibly at odds; the fungible definition of rape and the rights of both the accused and the victim; ever-changing workplace attitudes and policies around women and minorities; the concept of abetting crime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With wit, heart, and honesty, Gertner . . . looks back on the decades just after feminism’s Third Wave, when issues like abortion for poor women, shield laws for rape victims, ‘battered wife syndrome,’ and the rights of lesbians to adopt children were unconventional, to say the least.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Renee Loth, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a fascinating memoir of a life lived in the law with passion, guts, humor, and great skill.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and \u003cb\u003eauthor of \u003ci\u003eBefore Roe v. Wade\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter one\u003c\/b\u003e The  Revolutionary and the Radical Lawyer\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter two \u003c\/b\u003eThe  All-Women Team\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter three\u003c\/b\u003e Saving  Her Life, Inventing Mine\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter four\u003c\/b\u003e You  Want Me? I Want You!\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter five\u003c\/b\u003e Psychiatry,  Malpractice, and Feminism\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter six\u003c\/b\u003e The  Right to Choose All of Life’s Roles\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter seven \u003c\/b\u003eChoosing  Love and Work\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter eight\u003c\/b\u003e Fighting  at City Hall\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter nine\u003c\/b\u003e Work  and Babies\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter ten \u003c\/b\u003eA “Real”  Feminist\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter eleven\u003c\/b\u003e A “So-Called”  Feminist\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter twelve\u003c\/b\u003e Sexual  Harassment Pays; Sex Discrimination Doesn’t\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter thirteen\u003c\/b\u003e Glass  Ceilings at the School of Law\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter fourteen\u003c\/b\u003e Murder  and Racism\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eChapter fifteen \u003c\/b\u003eFrom  Red Dress to Black Robe\u003c\/p\u003e“…[A] must read for any  feminist attorneys. Readers will find Gertner’s honesty, humor, and bravery  refreshing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMs.JD\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“At age 29, barely out of Yale Law School, Gertner takes on the defense of Susan Saxe. It is the beginning of a long career pushing the boundaries of law and society. With wit, heart, and honesty, Gertner . . . looks back on the decades just after feminism’s Third Wave, when issues like abortion for poor women, shield laws for rape victims, ‘battered wife syndrome,’ and the rights of lesbians to adopt children were unconventional, to say the least.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Renee Loth, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In this season of  television re-runs, devotees of  \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eLaw and  Order\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e or \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Good  Wife\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ewould do well to turn off  the tube, and sit down with Gertner’s book. They might pull an  all-nighter.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSenior Women\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This is a wonderfully readable and involving memoir by one of the legendary lawyer advocates of our time, a determined representative of the underserved who improbably ended up on the federal bench. A terrific book.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Scott Turow, author of \u003ci\u003eInnocent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “This is a fascinating memoir of a life lived in the law with passion, guts, humor, and great skill. Nancy Gertner’s clients were lucky to have her then, and the legal system is lucky to have her today.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Linda Greenhouse, author of \u003ci\u003eBefore Roe v. Wade\u003c\/i\u003e and Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “An extraordinary story by an extraordinary judge! Gertner’s memoir succeeds brilliantly in explaining why women’s voices are urgently needed in the law and on the bench. This book is as irreverent, funny, and dramatic as the justice herself.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Joyce Antler, author of \u003ci\u003eYou Never Call! You Never Write!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Nancy Gertner is a courageous pioneer and brilliant jurist whose life lessons will interest anyone who has ever stood in a courtroom, fought for a cause, or juggled a demanding career and loving family.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of \u003ci\u003eSuperCorp\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Nancy Gertner’s book should be required reading at every law school in the country where women—and men—are learning these days that they have to choose between a successful legal career and their deepest convictions about justice. She is living proof that you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. You can have it all. Indeed, she has done it all.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Ellen Goodman, author of \u003ci\u003ePaper Trail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Gertner adeptly  describes insider courtroom strategy as well as both the blatant and insidious  institutional sexism she faced. Her story is a well-told reflection of the  growth and growing pains of the legal system regarding women as advocates,  educators, plaintiffs, and defendants.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublisher's Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A riveting legal  memoir by a superstar lawyer, a compassionate judge and a page turning writer. \u003ci\u003eIn Defense of Women\u003c\/i\u003e is a rare treat:  an insider with an outsider’s perspective  speaking truth about power.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e─Alan  M. Dershowitz, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSupreme  Injustice\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] thoroughly  engaging, outspoken memoir…She writes this memoir to preserve her pre-judge  identity as an advocate, as well as to remind the next generation of women,  particularly those rejecting feminism, of the choices she and her contemporaries  fought hard to maintain.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e─\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNancy Gertner\u003c\/b\u003e was appointed a Federal District judge by President Clinton in 1993 and serves on the bench for the District of Massachusetts. Before her appointment, Judge Gertner was a defense and civil rights lawyer in Boston. As a judge she has decided cases where racial profiling, employment discrimination, and fair housing were at issue. A graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School, she has taught at the law schools of Yale, Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Ten \u003cbr\u003eA “Real” Feminist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePeter, my fourteen-month-old, was up all night before the closing. The trial of a woman accused of murdering her husband, who had beaten her, was two hours away in Springfield, Massachusetts. I spent every other night there, to minimize the time away from the boys. With absolutely no sleep, except a few minutes in the car, I was going on pure adrenaline.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI pace back and forth in the silent courtroom telling Lisa Grimshaw’s story, a story so very far from my own:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShe was the youngest of three sisters. The older two had been raised in comfort, but by the time Lisa was ten, her father was unemployed. Often drunk, he would fly into unpredictable rages. At first, the target was his wife, but soon it was Lisa. Alone with her father after school, the abuse turned sexual.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eRemember the sound of her voice as she had described the pink bedspread on which he violated her. She seemed like a child, reexperiencing the pain.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAt fourteen, she fled to Darryl Fredette. He was twenty-one, a batterer too, her face his favorite target. “I was the one who knocked out her front teeth!” he had crowed at trial. A son is born, Darryl Brandon Fredette, a boy so badly retarded that, within months, he was placed in foster care.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThen from Darryl to Tom Grimshaw. After moving to Miami, Tom could not find work, and like Lisa’s father, he began drinking and beating her, drinking and beating. She fled; he followed.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThey reconciled. But when he found out that she was pregnant, he threatened to cut the baby out. Still, they stayed together. She loved him, she said.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChad was born, this time, a normal son. They married and soon, much too soon, there were 911 calls, restraining orders, and finally, divorce. Now Tom’s visits to Chad were an occasion to torture her. Remember her testimony? One incident more degrading than the next—forcing her to have sex by threatening her with scalding water, handcuffing her while she slept, raping her when she awoke. Wherever she moved, he stalked her, found her, beat her.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFive months before Tom’s death, November 21, 1984, in the middle of the night, Lisa awoke to the sound of breaking glass. She had changed the locks to this new apartment, even nailed the windows shut, but Tom smashed them open. In the fight that followed, he knocked her front teeth out with a hammer—the second time her teeth were bashed at the hands of an abusive lover.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- - - -\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI pause. I bring a chair directly in front of the jury. I sit down, lean over as far as I can, and wrap my arms around my legs. This was as close to a fetal position as I could get, dressed as I was in court clothes and heels. For my closing, I will relive Lisa’s story of the hours before Tom’s death. I will transform myself into her.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eJune 3, 1985. Tom picked up Chad. They fought; she bargained: “You can have him now, but don’t give me shit when I come to get him.” When she returned, there was a struggle. Chad, only four, ran into the middle of the street. An oncoming car missed him by inches. Tom grabbed Lisa’s keys and struck her with them. She scrambled away, grabbing spare keys and her young son.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBack in her apartment, safe for the time being, she drank and drank, sitting in a chair, staring at the apartment door.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, as I recite these facts, I slowly rock back and forth, staring into space.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eEvery sound frightened her; Tom would surely break in at any minute. \u003c\/i\u003eThen, taking on her voice, I say: \u003ci\u003eAnd this time, he will kill me or Chad. This time he will really do it.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI shiver.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTwo men, acquaintances really, came to the door after a night’s drinking. Lisa had met Michael Bruyette at her job at Bo’s Lounge in Chicopee. She was just twenty-three; he, nineteen. Michael Ashey, sixteen, hung out with Bruyette. Lisa complained about her husband’s abuse. Bruyette, wooing her with his machismo, once threatened Tom on the phone. Lisa told Bruyette and Ashey what happened that night. Bruyette announced: “OK, that’s it, let’s go.” In her alcoholic haze, she said, “OK.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBruyette called the shots: Ashey’s older brother, Ronald, would babysit for Chad. “You pick up Tom at work,” Bruyette said. “We’ll do the rest.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShe met Tom as he was leaving the night shift. “I’m horny,” she told him. They drove to a remote area. When they stopped, she said, “You walk on. I have to pee.” Instead, she returned to her car, hands frozen to the wheel. The idea was to beat Tom, not kill him, but Bruyette and Ashey got carried away.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA very young woman, lurching from moment to moment, driven by her fear, her past, the abuse, the torture, believes that she has no choice but to fight back.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy voice breaks. I stop speaking, but rock slowly—my eyes closed.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFrancis Bloom, an assistant DA in Springfield, Hamden County, stands up. He shouts. He paces. He is furious, his words dripping with contempt, as he counters:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLisa was conniving and manipulative. A cold-blooded murderer. She had taken a nineteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old, Bruyette and Ashey, “plied” them with sex in one case, alcohol in another, and promised them the proceeds of Tom’s life insurance policy. She “lured” her husband to the boat ramp, in the middle of the night, where these two hired assassins were waiting behind a tree, knowing that they were going to splatter his brains all over the rocks.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen he turns to the details: the officers who had found the body in the early morning hours, its battered condition, the contents of Tom Grimshaw’s wallet tossed contemptuously in the dumpster en route from the Chicopee boat ramp, the brother’s heartrending testimony when he described the last time he saw Tom. From what he could see of Tom and Lisa’s marriage—and he saw them all the time—it was entirely normal.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBloom recounts the testimony of Michael and Ronald Ashey in a rapid-fire narrative: Ronald, the older brother, who babysat for Chad while Lisa and Bruyette killed Chad’s father, was charged as an accessory before the fact of first-degree murder. Michael, who had accompanied the others to the boat ramp, was charged as a co-conspirator.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLisa promised them money from an insurance policy on her husband’s life in return for the murder. Sure, she talked about her husband’s brutality, not because it was true—but because she was manipulating them. Just as she was manipulating you.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBloom pauses to glare at the jury\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen she told Bruyette and Ashey about the November 1984 hammer incident, she had added, “I want him dead.” Bruyette was her special focus. She was sleeping with him, leading him on. Killing her husband was the return on her investment in these boys.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis was no spur-of-the-moment, no instant crime of passion. It was planned, and Lisa was the ringleader. Bruyette and Michael had picked up bats from Tom Grimshaw’s house some time before the killing. She told them where to go. When she arrived at the boat ramp, she signaled them. Hardly sleepwalking, frozen, or dazed. And afterwards, when they left Tom moaning, grievously injured, she conspired about disposing of the body (“throw it in the river”) and covering up the crime (“wash the car”).\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt was cold-blooded, first-degree murder, murder for hire, nothing more, nothing less.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- - - -\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e From afar, this was an easy case for me—easier than the political corruption trials that I had recently finished, easier than the runof- the-mill murder case. This was, after all, Gertner the feminist, representing a battered woman. True, Lisa set in motion the night’s events, but should the law hold her responsible? Wasn’t the killing committed in self-defense because of her state of mind, the psychological condition known as “battered woman syndrome,” and therefore legally excused?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut it was not easy on many fronts—professional, political, and now personal. Should battered woman syndrome\/self-defense excuse such an act entirely, with a not-guilty verdict, or should it mitigate the outcome with a finding of manslaughter, a lower sentence? What about other so-called syndromes that lead to killings— road rage, homosexual fear, “Twinkie” defenses? Or the “white fear” that a small white man, Bernard Goetz, claimed justified his shooting of four black teenagers on a New York subway? What about the “black rage” of any African American treated with contempt by our culture? If we exonerate one, do we exonerate them all?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI could not forget that a man, a father, had been killed. At this stage in my career, I could not pretend that the legal discourse framed all the complicated issues in this human drama.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut had I finally learned to just say whatever it took in court, what I didn’t believe in, craft so totally trumping principle? No. But, sixteen years into the practice of law, I understood advocacy and its boundaries, complex reality and simple trial narratives. Trials, unlike one-sided grand jury investigations, are competing narratives, as Janet Malcolm once noted in \u003ci\u003eThe Crime of Sheila McGough\u003c\/i\u003e—my version versus their version. Life, though, is chaotic; when you shoehorn it into neat stories, it is no longer, strictly speaking, the truth. Advocacy colors both sides. Lawyers are, after all, storytellers—even caricaturists—not reporters. And when the issues are complex, as in Lisa’s case, the distance between a trial’s stories and life’s stories widens.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eStill, there were limits to how far I was willing to go to separate legal argument and life—especially now that my time was more limited, my life more complex. These were not just the traditional ethical limits on lawyers. I had to believe in the cause, the person, the issues, or some combination. The label “a feminist case” was not enough. Why, then, this person and this case?","brand":"Beacon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301802332389,"sku":"NP9780807011485","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780807011485.jpg?v=1767729917","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/in-defense-of-women-isbn-9780807011485","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}