At an annual dinner with then-HLS Dean Erwin Griswold, Hope writes of “sparkling Catawba grape juice for cocktails, stewed chicken and lima beans for dinner, and interrogation for dessert” as Griswold asked the female students, “Why are you at Harvard Law School, taking the place of a man?”

Though they faced occasional opposition from peers and professors in an atmosphere that was unfamiliar with women at best and hostile to them at worst, Hope and her classmates remained determined to graduate.

Even when Professor W. Barton “Pappy” Leach only allowed female students to speak on designated “ladies days”—when questioning generally related to cases involving underwear—few protested.

“Essentially it was an exaggerated version of our everyday experience: we were in an unusual position in an unusual place for women to be,” writes classmate Alice Pasachoff Wegman, who became an environmental lawyer.

After graduation, Hope, like most of her classmates, struggled to find employment. Even finishing second in the state on the Ohio bar examination, Hope writes, led only to offers of secretarial work.

But after pounding the pavement of the nation’s capital, Hope landed a job working for top-notch lawyer Edward Bennett Williams. From there, she skyrocketed to the top levels of Washington’s power elite, becoming the first female associate director of the White House Domestic Council in 1975 and the first female partner in the Paul, Hastings law firm.

And officials at Harvard took note.

Hope was named to the University’s highest governing board in 1989, the first woman in more than 350 years to join the ranks of the exclusive Harvard Corporation.

For one not usually intimidated, the first meeting, held around the board’s traditional table at 17 Quincy St., was a daunting start.

“Even though I was within reach of the table, I didn’t know the customs of that table or quite the right way to travel the last few feet and take my place,” Hope recalls in the book’s opening chapter. “No one told me where to sit and there were no place cards.”

Though she retired from the Corporation in 1999, Hope has remained an active supporter of the Law School.

Several weeks ago, Hope returned to Langdell Hall to share her story in the Caspersen Treasure Room.

Having the opportunity to speak in a recently-renovated room containing some of the school’s most valuable possessions was a great honor, Hope says. But the refurbished shelves and exhibit space weren’t the only things that differed from her days as a student.

“Most notably, there are ladies bathrooms everywhere at Harvard Law School,” she says. “That’s a big change. You don’t have to run through a sleet storm for two blocks to use the powder room.”

Telling the students of the HLS classes of 2003, 2004 and 2005 about the travails of the Class of 1964 was an “eye-opening” experience, she says.