At the 1971 Harvard Law Review banquet, feminist activist Gloria Steinem ruffled more than a few feathers. In 1971, the feminist writer and activist Gloria Steinem was invited to become the first woman ever to give the annual Harvard Law Review banquet address. Steinem, 36, was an unusual choice for such an exclusive, and almost entirely male, institution. At first she thought the invitation was a practical joke. She eventually agreed, though, and endeavored to make the most of the opportunity. And what Steinem delivered on that March evening was more than a thought-provoking after-dinner speech — it was a devastating indictment of one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. For most of its illustrious history — going back to its founding in 1817 — Harvard Law School has been a bastion of white male privilege. Women were not admitted until the early 1950s. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was just one of nine women in a class of 500 at the school in 1957. Things were not much better by 1971. When Steinem first arrived on campus, as she describes in her memoir, My Life on the Road, she met with female law students. She learned that only 7 percent of the student population were women, she learned about “Ladies Day” (the only time that female students were called on in class) and she learned that the law school’s faculty was 100 percent male. “So sure of themselves are the powers-that-be,” Steinem wrote, “that the sign over the men’s room in the library stacks just says FACULTY.” | 
