In 1991, Hillary Rodham Clinton in her capacity as President of the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession established the Margaret Brent Award "to recognize some of the women who were crashing through the glass ceiling and changing the world." Elizabeth Vrato interviewed 18 recipients and collected their stories in her book, Counselors: Conversations with 18 Courageous Women Who Have Changed the World.

Some of the recipients will be familiar to all readers: Supreme Court Justices O'Connor and Ginsburg are among those interviewed. As is former Attorney General Janet Reno. The stories of these most public figures were familiar to me already: young Sandra Day O'Connor only receiving offers for secretarial posts after graduating from Stanford Law School, Justice Frankfurter refusing to hire top-ranked Ruth Bader Ginsburg because he "wasn't ready" to hire a woman; Janet Reno's mother building their family home herself. But other anecdotes were new to me: the ABA Commission worried they wouldn't fill the small reserved room for the first Margaret Brent Award ceremony; men refusing to sit next to female student at Harvard Law School.

The interviews are full of advice, inspiration, and practical guides to navigating work-life balance issues and discrimination. I highly recommend it!