CBA Record March-April 2025

Women’s History Month Reading The Chicago Bar Association is pleased to celebrate 2025 Women’s History Month, which commemorates the role of women in American history. As a part of the celebration, the CBA Record ’s Editorial Board encourages and challenges you to read more, starting with the sug gestions below, which focus on empowering, inspiring, and educating women. — Nina Fain, CBA Record Editorial Board

STRIVE: 8 STEPS TO FIND YOUR AWESOME by Venus Williams In Strive , readers will learn how eight concise, but essential tenets can help turn smart choices into habits. And once that happens, you’ll forge a lifestyle you’ll maintain because you want to, not because you must—and that’s when you start winning. Written by Venus Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, readers can pull back the curtain on the cognitive and emotional preparation of a sports champion and learn how to manage human struggles, such as chronic illness, fear of success, time conflicts, and the relentless pressures of life in the public eye. Recommended by Nina Fain, General Counsel, LG Segovanio R.E.I.T

THE NO CLUB: PUTTING A STOP TO WOMEN’S DEAD-END WORK by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart

This book provides a toolkit for women to avoid the burn-out that comes from taking on too many responsibilities and tasks in professional organizations. Tools include identifying tasks that are “promotable” versus “nonpromot able” based on responsibility and reputation; finding and forging support systems within one’s network; and saying “no” in a way that avoids blowback to one’s professional reputation. The book offers a satisfying counterstrategy to the band-aid advice of “you just need to lean in more.” Recommended by J. Kopczyk, Attorney at Law and YLS Journal Editor

MEN EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME by Rebecca Solnit This compilation, named for Solnit’s famous 2008 essay, is a quick read. In the titular story, Solnit recounts an expe rience in which a man she met at a social gathering interrupted her to explain the nuances of a recently published book—not knowing the book was, in fact, one of Solnit’s own (this essay is often credited for inspiring the term “mansplaining”). Other essays examine important topics including sexual violence, marriage equality, and economic inequality. Recommended by Trisha Rich, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP, and CBA Secretary

FIGHT LIKE HELL: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF AMERICAN LABOR by Kim Kelley Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor is as enjoyable as it is informative. It covers ways in which the labor movement affected women and other under-represented groups (such as people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, sex workers, prisoners, and people who are poor). Although the book is not limited exclusively to women, it certainly offers much on women’s contributions. And it is also a very comfortable read as it was written for mainstream distribution. Recommended by Katherine Hanson, Program Director, Independent Practice Initiative and Staff Attorney, The Law Offices of Chicago-Kent

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