The Four Ms. Bradwells

"The natural & proper timidity & delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life.... The paramount destiny & mission of woman are to fulfill the noble & benign offices of wife &mother. This is the law of the Creator" US Supreme Court Justice Joseph P Bradley from his 1873 opinion in Bradwell v. Illionois, denying Mrs. Myra Bradwell the right to practice law.

Four young women in law school in the early 1960s. Fifty years later, Betts is being considered for the Supreme Court. As the hearing nears its' last day, a question is voiced about an incident that happened during spring break of the girl's senior year of law school. Betts quickly gives a "non" answer and leaves the room. She is joined by her 3 girlfriends where they escape to Cook Island to mentally recreate what "really" did happen that weekend.

Meg Waite Clatyon (The Wednesday Sisters) has written a great book about women struggling to find their place in a primarily man's world in the 1960s.