Women: Biology, Culture and Literature

This book was prompted by my near total engagement in the Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Judge Kavanaugh's statement after the accusations against him were investigated (September--early October 2018). The timing of the hearings overlapped the 85th birthday celebrations of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who experienced bias by the legal establishment despite her outstanding scholarship and impeccable credentials, simply because she was a woman and a mother. Her persistence in the face of roadblocks led to her confirmation by an overwhelming majority of the Senate to become only the second woman Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (Sandra Day O'Connor was the first). Their stories, and the stories of women throughout history (at least some of them), provided an outlet for my frustration and became the subject matter for this book. Following Paul Auster, "Stories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see where they are going to lead."