"Yale Needs Women" is an inspiring and riveting account of the early feminist pioneers at Yale University, offering a poignant glimpse into their courageous journey as the first women admitted in 1969. Against the backdrop of the 1970s civil rights and anti-war movements, Perkins skillfully brings this historical narrative to life, making it eerily relevant for today's U.S. campuses. Edward B. Fiske, acclaimed author of the "Fiske Guide to Colleges," commends Perkins for her storytelling prowess, while Janet L. Yellen, a distinguished figure, emphasizes the importance of this book as a 'must-read' that highlights the progress made in women's opportunities while reminding us that the fight for equality is ongoing. In sum, "Yale Needs Women" is an essential, captivating read for those interested in women's rights and the evolution of higher education in the United States.

I have to admit as a Yalie myself (albeit from the less rarefied air of one of the graduate schools) I was eager to read about how Yale welcomed women scholars and … oh, right. It didn’t.

In the summer of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education.

Or was it?

The experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face.

Criticized for its “narrow” view of women in academia through the lens of only one school (I don’t think it’s too narrow—this is a case study, in a sense, not a guide), this well-researched book is lively and engaging… and more than a little scary.

I was at Yale in 1982-84, and while most of the most grievous of growing pains of women’s admission were over by then, it still wasn’t a cakewalk; one professor routinely called me “young lady.” But reading this, I realize how easy others had made things for me.

Imagine the daily struggle. Male faculty held luncheon office hours at Mory's, which women were not allowed to attend. The fledgling field hockey team had to borrow uniforms from Southern CT State College so as not to show up against Princeton in t-shirts and denim shorts. Splitting women across the campus kept them as tiny percentages of the population in their classes and residential colleges. Oh, and then there's the sexual harassment, even if had not yet been named as such. And rape. Mostly, there was Kingman Brewster's administration, determined to remain an institution that produced "a thousand leaders of men" every year, and thus could not admit more women. Brewster, who had done so much good for Yale, comes off shockingly badly in his mishandling of coeducation.

I do recommend this book, if for no other reason than to help us understand how important the #metoo movement, and the many, many feminist movements that preceded it, have left their marks on our culture. We still have a very long way to go toward gender equality, but understanding where we came from and how brave and heroic were some of that moment’s frontline workers—i.e., women scholars—is an essential step in attaining the kind of parity that is our due.

Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins is splendid. It’s intersectional and informative. The author did substantial research as well as interviewing several people; the slow progress of Yale going fully coed is shown through the experiences of the students she interviewed, discussions among the administration, and enough information about what was going on in the rest of the country and at other colleges and universities to put everything into context. The book begins with 1969. I thought she did a particularly excellent job tying these specific events into the early days of “second wave” feminism and showing how feminist aims were sometimes aided by other civil rights movements of the time, and sometimes treated as though they were completely separate. For example, the president of Yale at the time had been forward-looking in recruiting more Black, Jewish, and working class male students, but could not seem to comprehend how admitting women could similarly be a benefit to the university.

Great for people who love a history of female trailblazers, feminism, and academia. You don't have to be a Yale alumnus to enjoy this book, though I imagine people who love Ivy Leagues may be most interested in this book.

I liked it, but not loved. It's fascinating seeing how the changes came about to Yale (and other higher education). I liked how the author highlighted specific women throughout the book. The downside to the info dumpiness was I felt like I was constantly being reintroduced to our characters. I don't need to be reminded every chapter who our players are

I got about 40% through this and just have not been able to get any further. It's a really interesting topic, but I guess not my style. I really like non fiction but just couldn't get all the way through this.

Every female should read this to express pride. Every male should read to lear.n. This book is an important read.

Anne Gardiner Perkins provides a fascinating look at the triumphs and tribulations faced by the women entering Yale university in 1969. The book is particularly successful in contextualizing the events on campus with the broader cultural shifts in American society at the time, with obvious focus on the proliferation of the Women's movement. The author's trenchant analysis of the pervasive misogyny and discrimination is both fascinating and heart-breaking. Of particular interest is the way in which misogyny and sexism existed not just in the attitudes of men on campus, but extended to the physical environment itself. Either through ignorance, or malicious intent, the physical space of Yale was often made to be unwelcoming for women. The way in which space is both gendered, and surveilled, is a particularly interesting component of the work.

While the book is too specific to be used as a survey text, it is useful as an assigned reading and can easily be paired with texts examining the current campus sexual assault epidemic. As one might expect, many of the issues experienced by the women in 1969 are still being faced today. It is a timely reminder that equal rights must always be fought for. Only be knowing the stories of these courageous women, and others like them, can we arm ourselves for the battles that lay ahead.

"The women who go first and speak out help shape a better world for all of us, yet all too often their stories are lost. I was not going to let that happen to this story".

This is the story of the first women that got accepted at Yale after 268 years being an all male college. The author interviewed 42 women and focused on the stories of 5 women students (Kit McClure - Lawrie Mifflin - Connie Royster - Betty Spahn - Shirley Daniels : 2 black and 3 white). It is a non fiction book written like a novel in a very engaging style that grabs the readers' interest from page 1 and it keeps it until the end of the book. We follow their early days, their trials and tribulations and how they navigated through some very stormy waters until their graduation. I admire them for their courage, their tenacity and I am grateful for their journey. Highly recommended if you are interested in the women's movement and history.
As a conclusion, I have a question: "What was it with the summer of '69? What a summer! It's like a whole revolution in all spheres of life took place during THAT summer!"

It is important to remember that it was not too long ago that American women couldn't get a credit card, hold certain jobs, or attend certain schools. Looking back, it seems so absurd, but of course it affected 1/2 the population, whether absurd or not. I thank the women (like these) who did the hard work to work towards equality, and remember that we aren't there yet.

I really enjoyed this highly readable nonfiction account of the first class of women who were accepted to attend Yale University. This had been a long-standing, male only institution of higher education, only allowing the women on campus to work menial jobs or for short parties in order to try to arrange proper couples. This was part of what drove the push for inclusion of women, in that the "sister" institution was not convenient and therefore Yale was losing attendees to other schools who already had a more enticing co-ed policy.
It was an interesting account of the lack of insight the men in charge had into even the basics that the women would need, requiring them to put a woman in place as Dean of Women's Education. And given that so much of the push to involve these highly qualified young women was about marriage to the men, the men were expecting the women to "be available" to them. Whereas, the women were looking for a great chance at the educational opportunity that was now offered. This book gives a great collection of insights into what that culture must have been like for both the women and the men. These are the growing pains faced at many universities around the same time when inclusion, be it gender or ethnic or racial, etc. was relatively new to shake up the status quo. And this was not that long ago. We have made a lot of progress but still have a long way to go and this book helps to show the hurdles that Yale faced at the time.
Really well done. Highly recommend.
#YaleNeedsWomen #Netgalley #Sourcebooks

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

Given the subject this is a surprisingly easy read. The book is well researched and the writing intriguing.

Yale Needs Women written by Anne Gardiner Perkins illuminates the history of the coeducation of Yale University in 1969 when it admitted the first contingent of female students. The history of higher education in the United States began at the end of the 17th century with Harvard University and then Yale (1701) established as training ground for male Congregational ministers better known as log colleges. That tradition of men-only Ivy League universities continued for the next three and a half decades.

Perkins situates Yale’s decision to become coeducational within the burgeoning social movements of the era, including antiwar, feminism, and Black Power. The first cohort of women students admitted to Yale in 1969 were outnumbered by a ratio of 7:1. Perkins’s book expands on the battle to increase the enrollment of women students and the struggles to achieve some minor semblance of equity in organizations, dinner clubs, and collegiate sports on campus. The book is an engagingly written narrative history featuring a cohort of five women students who entered in 1969, the administrative efforts of Elga Wasserman, the assistant dean of the Graduate School and chair on the Committee for Coeducation. Wasserman, initially towed the line but later became impatient with the slowness of then Yale President Kingman Brewster’s desire to integrate Yale. The book does a phenomenal job showing the struggles both experienced by Wasserman and the contingent of Yale women.

In telling the narrative history of Yale, the book is wholly successful; however, I sought more analysis. There is no significant analysis about the extent to which sexism and misogyny pervaded the University. For example, in depicting sexual harassment and rape on campus, Perkins uses the obsolete notions of “date rape,” instead of offering analysis of the rampant sexual violence,rape, and harassment that female staff and students endured. Yale epitomized rape culture yet there is no deep analyses of the ways in which that manifested itself and affected women students except conveying that a few students left Yale owing to the trauma experienced with Yale men. The same lack of analysis applied to the depictions of emergent Black studies and the well-known Black Panthers trial in New Haven that same year. To Perkins’s credit, she does include two black students among the five women entering Yale in 1969, but does not really dig deep into any significant racial analysis. Still, the book offers an interesting narrative of a chapter of history little known and is recommended for those interested in women’s history, the history of higher education, and Yale University in particular.

Before the fall of 1969, Yale had been an all-male institution for 268 years. They had a stated goal of admitting 1000 men each year, the future leaders of the country. In 1968, pressure built upon Kingman Brewster, popular president of Yale, to open Yale to women. Male students declared “Yale needs women.” Up until then women were bussed in on weekends from nearby schools to provide a social life. Hardly a satisfactory solution. Other schools like Harvard were co-ed. Faculty and many alumni pressed for this change. Reluctantly, Brewster, and the Yale Board yielded.

The decision was made to admit 230 women in 1969. Elga Wasserman, former Chemistry professor and assistant dean was tasked to handle the transition to coeducation. She recognized they would need “strong” women to enter this all-male domain. This book suggests that the women who were admitted admirably met that criteria, but that it would take more than that. It traces these first four years through the experiences of several of those women. We see how each carved out their own niche while contending with the male-dominated structure of Yale.

To begin with, there was an eight to one imbalance with men. There were heavy pressures to date, and sexual assault and harassment before it was named. Women were distributed among the eight colleges and so isolated from each other. There were no varsity women’s sports. It was an uphill battle to get locks on the bathrooms. Most women had only male faculty.

Elga Wasserman, along with the women, had to fight against the structures that resisted change. Students joined, creating some of the early feminist organizations like the Sisterhood. A couple on faculty, Philip and Lorna Sarrel, led some of the early sexual education work as pioneers in the field. Eventually, Morey’s dropped its male-only dining policy. Wasserman herself struggled, being designated “special assistant” rather than dean or VP.

Eventually advocacy focused on gender blind admissions. Many superior women applicants were rejected in favor of inferior male applicants in the skewed ratio of 1000 to 230. Things would not change until after the first class graduated. Elga Wasserman was one of the casualties. She vigorously advocated and achieved a number of changes, but lost her job after this class graduated.

Today, it is hard to believe some of this went on. The book shows how far more is needed than a change in admissions policy. Structures, policies, and traditions need to change as well. What the book highlights are the pioneers, and some enlightened allies, who persisted, who were the “edge of the wedge” of change.

Very readable book about the first women to be admitted to Yale. Things that stood out for me were the descriptions of Yale as a traditional men’s Ivy League school as well as the stories of the individual women who were the first to enter Yale. The author has a lively writing style that brings the women’s stories to life.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.

A nonfiction book that details the first admissions of women to Yale in 1969. I totally enjoyed this well written book that goes deeply in the culture of this time discussing the culture wars going on - discrimination against women and people of color, the controversy over the vietnam war. This was my generation so I watched it all happen which may be why I liked it so much. It is interesting to see how 50 years later, women are still fighting the same battles.

Previously an all-male enclave, Yale admitted its first women students in 1969. This book is a surprisingly compelling account of how that change came about and an account of some of the first women to be accepted there. They certainly didn’t have an easy ride, and prejudice against women from both faculty and students survived for quite a while. It’s hard now to remember those days and this is a timely reminder of how women have often had to battle for equal educational rights. The stories of some of those first students, and the trajectory their lives took, make for some fascinating reading, but after a while I found it all became a bit repetitious and I began to flag. Perhaps the book could have been a bit more condensed to retain the reader’s (or at least this reader’s) attention. Overall, however, an interesting and worthwhile read.

In 1970, Yale admitted its first class of women. Not because it wanted to, not because women were smart and intelligent and deserved the best, but because it wanted to continue to draw in men. The women were spread out among multiple colleges and isolated from one another. Their safety, their comfort, were given little thought. Their fellow students, treated them as oddities and curiosities.

This book followed a handful of the women first admitted into Yale. It didn't focus on anyone long enough to give them real personality, or to forge a real connection with the reader. I have to admit, this book was extremely dry and slow moving. I had to force myself to keep reading, rather than putting it down and starting a new book. Overall, a bit of a disappointment.

YALE NEEDS WOMEN by Anne Gardiner Perkins was just released this week and I am actually reading this book in tandem with Paul Tough's new work about college, The Years That Matter Most. It is truly fascinating to reflect on changes and the differing experiences across generations. Perkins is writing about "How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant," chronicling the experiences of several women who were among the first of their gender to attend Yale. For some of our students, it may be hard to believe that Yale and many other schools were only integrated gender-wise in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a generation or so ago. Perkins does an excellent job of describing the feelings of those pioneering co-eds and her work could readily apply to events at other schools, like Union College. In fact, Booklist says that YALE NEEDS WOMEN is "recommended for teens [because] teens approaching college age, especially those involved in social justice, will enjoy this window into a not-actually-that-distant past."

Perkins' book, though, is not just about the decision to admit women, but about what happened next and how subtle (or not so subtle) traditions and rituals impacted their experiences: "'The worst part was being constantly conspicuous, which is something you don't think about until it happens to you,' said one freshman girl." Extremely well-researched, YALE NEEDS WOMEN contains a chart about the sources for oral histories and interviews, plus extensive notes (50+ pages), an index, and some black and white photos from the time. Please look for a copy on our shelves soon – I am looking forward to having many conversations with interested readers. We still have much to do, as Perkins emphasizes through a number of statistics in her epilogue: "Women students today graduate at a higher rate than their male classmates, but their bachelor's degrees earn them just 74 cents on the dollar compared to what men with the same credentials are paid. En route to that degree, one in five women is sexually assaulted. Nationally, women represent just 32 percent of full professors, and 26 percent of college and university presidents. ... The battle ... is not yet done."