Cynthia Fuchs Epstein’s foundational Women in Law adds Deborah Rhode’s new Foreword: available in paperback and eBooks

Simply one of the most important and influential works in the canon of the sociology of law, Epstein’s Women in Law is now republished (including new paperback) and available worldwide for departments of sociology, law, and gender studies — but also reads as accessible and fascinating to a general audience, unloaded with legal or sociological jargon. Universally considered to be pathbreaking, landmark, original, and provocative since its first edition was published three decades ago, the book continues to provide a sociological and historical analysis of the overt and subtle ceilings placed on women in the legal profession in their various roles.

Adding a new foreword by Stanford’s Deborah Rhode, the thirtieth anniversary edition of this classic book reports countless revealing interviews, war stories, and inside glimpses of the many professional roles that women inhabit: lawyers, judges, professors, leaders, and backroom labor. It also brings vividly to life the candid — and sometimes cringeworthy — assessments by male lawyers and judges about the changes to the profession ushered in by the increasing entry of women to the lawyers’ club.

Part of the Classics of Law & Society Series from Quid Pro Books, Women in Law is recognized as within the canon of its field, and now is available in a new paperback and eBook format. The latter features active contents and notes, linked cross-references, and the original tables and figures. Both the eBooks and paperback even embed the page numbers from the previous editions, for continuity of referencing and classroom assignments. In eBooks, the work becomes much more useful to researchers and teachers in the field than the usual unpaginated digital presentation.

From the new Foreword to the 2012 edition:

“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.”
— Deborah L. Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

“Impressive … a story which the legal world can read with no legal pride and which others will read with substantial interest.”
— New York Times Book Review (reviewing the first edition)

AVAILABILITY:

Now in a 2012 paperback edition, including Amazon.com; our QP eStore page for this book (fulfilled securely by Amazon); and at Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. Libraries may order through such sites or YBP Library Services and the Ingram catalog.

And in leading eBook formats:

Amazon for Kindle.

Barnes & Noble for Nook.

For Apple directly at iTunes and iBooks, for iPad and iPhone (or by using Kindle app).

Also at Google Play app here.
And in ePUB format at Smashwords; look for it at Diesel and Kobobooks.

About the Author:

CYNTHIA FUCHS EPSTEIN is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is also the author of Access to Power: Cross-National Studies of Women and Elites; The Other Half: Roads to Women’s Equality; Woman’s Place: Options and Limits in Professional Careers; and Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender, and the Social Order. She has served as President of the American Sociological Association and is a Trustee of the Law & Society Association.

Cataloging:

ISBN 9781610270991 (2012 paperback)
ISBN 9781610271004 (Kindle)
ISBN 9781610271011 (ePub)