The Quiet Rebels By: Barbara Burstein and Vasily Kouskoulas (2018, Paperback, 376 pages)

“It’s a girl!” the Ontario press announced, as Canada’s first woman lawyer was called to the Ontario bar in February 1897. Quiet Rebels explores experiences of exclusion among the few women lawyers for the next six decades, and how their experiences continue to shape gender issues in the contemporary legal profession. Mary Jane Mossman tells the stories of all 187 Ontario women lawyers called to the bar from 1897 to 1957, revealing the legal profession’s gendered patterns. Comprising a small handful of students—or even a single student—at the Law School, women were often ignored, and they faced discrimination in obtaining articling positions and legal employment. Most were Protestant, white, and middle-class, and a minority of Jewish, Catholic, Black, and immigrant women lawyers faced even greater challenges. The book also explores some changes, as well as continuities, for the much larger numbers of Ontario women lawyers in recent decades. This longitudinal study of women lawyers’ gendered experiences in the profession during six decades of social, economic, and political change in early twentieth-century Ontario identifies factors that created—or foreclosed on—women lawyers’ professional success. The book’s final section explores how some current women lawyers, despite their increased numbers, must remain “quiet rebels” to succeed.

Lucid and absorbing, The Quiet Rebels tells the moving story of the Religious Society of Friends and its unique contribution to the history of the United States, from the day in 1656 when the first Publishers of the Truth arrived in Boston harbor to the present.

The story of the quakers in America.

“Vivid portraits” of individuals and subcultures by a writer who “unmasks the assumptions we make about what counts as normal” (The New York Times). They are outsiders who seek to redefine fields from mental health to diplomacy to music. They push boundaries and transform ideas. They include filmmakers crowdsourcing their work, transgender and autistic activists, and Occupy Wall Street’s “alternative bankers.” These people create and package themselves in a practice cultural critic Alissa Quart dubs “identity innovation.” In this “fascinating” book, Quart introduces us to individuals who have created new structures to keep themselves sane, fulfilled, and, on occasion, paid. This deeply reported book shows how these groups now gather, organize, and create new communities and economies. Without a middleman, freed of established media, and highly mobile, unusual ideas and cultures are able to spread more quickly and find audiences and allies. Republic of Outsiders is a critical examination of those for whom being rebellious, marginal, or amateur is a source of strength (Barbara Ehrenreich). “Even if you don’t consider yourself an outsider or a rebel, Quart’s book has several lessons for creative work, particularly when it comes to making art outside a heavily commercial system.” —Fast Company “One of the smartest cultural interpreters of her generation. In Republic of Outsiders, she mixes sharp-eyed analysis with an empathetic heart. The result is a great read, and a brand-new lens through which to view outsiders, insiders—and ourselves.” —Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Ready to stand up and create positive change at work, but reluctant to speak up? True leadership doesn’t always come from a position of power or authority. By teaching you skills and providing practical advice, this handbook shows you how to engage your coworkers and bosses and bring your ideas forward so that they are heard, considered, and acted upon. Authors Carmen Medina and Lois Kelly—once rebels themselves—reveal ways to navigate your workplace, avoid common mistakes and traps, and overcome the fears that may be holding you back. You can achieve more success and less frustration, help your organization do better work, and—most important—find more meaning and joy in what you do.