JANE
PICKER

  • LAWYER. ADVOCATE. COLD WARRIOR FEMINIST ICON.

Jane Picker is a trailblazing attorney, fierce advocate for women’s rights, and now, debut author of the compelling memoir Betsy. Known for her pivotal role in the landmark Supreme Court case Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, which struck down mandatory maternity leave policies, Picker has spent a lifetime breaking barriers—from co-founding the nation’s first nonprofit fighting sex discrimination in the courts, to championing global legal reform through U.S.-Russia legal exchanges. With Betsy, she brings the same bold clarity and conviction to the page, charting a personal and political journey that reshaped the law—and her own life.

THE DEBUT

BETSY

Before she changed the law, she challenged the world. Betsy is her story.

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” A phenomenal autobiography that powerfully chronicles Jane Picker’s fearless journey through law, love, and the lifelong fight for women’s equality.”

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On my third birthday my mother gave me a doll. It was dressed in pink and had a fluffy bow and was called Betsy. I put it on my bedroom chair and never played with it. I didn’t realize then, but that was the moment I trod in my Great grandmother’s footsteps and found the determination and courage to put away childish things. My first foray into this new and exciting life actually began when I was three. Despite my mother’s opposition, I persuaded my father to take me to the local hardware store, leaving Mother behind. I wanted my Dad to buy me double ball bearing roller skates, which we both knew my Mom would never agree to.  Once home with my new skates, my Mother accepted the new reality. But, said she, you can only use them to skate inside the house.  That lasted a very short time. Finally I was liberated to take on everyone in the neighborhood but found that no one even dared to compete with me. My reputation as the most independent kid in the neighborhood was just beginning. Two years later at the age of 5 my Dad bought me a two wheeled bike for Christmas. We ignored the training wheels that my Mother tried to attach, and I raced off down the sidewalk. Nearby, old folks rocking in chairs on their front porches realized that their quiet afternoons were over.

Most boys were boring. And not as smart in school as I thought I was. My father was in the diplomatic corps and sent to Belgium in 1945 just a few months after the end of the Second World War. As a ten year old and an only child I was miserable in Brussels and delighted when my father got sent back to the United States. But as a junior high student in Roselle Park NJ I was a complete misfit. Not accustomed to central heating in schools in the winter time, I wore cotton dresses to school. The other girls were all boy crazy but how could I ever find a boyfriend ?  When I went to college I spent every minute studying. There were fraternities, but no sororities, and the boys drank beer in their frat houses completely against the rules. I had a few friends who were boys but no boy friend. My roommate climbed out our second story window at night to meet her boyfriend. But not paying  enough attention to her studies, she dropped out of college and married her boyfriend. Graduation eventually came and went. What was I to do next?  My political science department head encouraged me to take the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT) and let him know my score. When I told him he suggested I go to law school telling me that he would write a letter of recommendation for me.

And that was how I ended up at Yale Law School and met Sidney!  Sidney was ice skating at Yale’s ice hockey rink one wintery day until it was time to close. He had had his eye on a cute little junior high school girl wearing a bright red skirt. But she had friends of her own age and was leaving with them. Living right next door in a rented house with my two roommates, I asked Sidney if he would like to stop by for a cup of hot chocolate ( I was not a coffee drinker.) He followed me up the front steps and sat down on the living room sofa.  I was smitten. Not only was he handsome but he was from California- the land of my ancestors where, since my earliest years I had longed to return to. Now all I had to do was to figure out how to make this possible !

Brenda, a 12 year old girl, lived in an all black neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Her mother was reprimanded for letting her daughter play in an after school football league. The league played by the Rules of the Ohio High School Athletic Association which did not permit coed body contact sports. At her age Brenda was actually bigger than the boys of her same age. And her hair was cut short in an Afro. One afternoon during a break one of the boys on her team jeered out to the other team: “ We’re 20 points ahead and we’ve got a girl on our team.”  The coach declared a default. The other team was declared the winner and Brenda was thrown off the team. Her mother came to me wanting to get her daughter restored to the team. I filed a lawsuit in Cleveland’s federal court. The judge said that he was calling the mother to the witness stand. He swore her in, and then asked:”Does your daughter have your permission to play football after school?”  The mother answered “yes. “ Then the judge asked  “Why?” Her answer: “if you lived in our neighborhood you would rather have your daughter play football after school  under supervision than roaming the streets.” The judge in ruling in the child’s favor said: “Henceforth every young girl as well as every young boy can aspire to be “All Ohio”. You should have seen the joy on this child’s face when she understood that she was being restored to the team.

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Jane Picker is a trailblazing attorney, fierce advocate for women’s rights, and now, debut author of the compelling memoir Betsy. Known for her pivotal role in the landmark Supreme Court case Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, which struck down mandatory maternity leave policies, Picker has spent a lifetime breaking barriers—from co-founding the nation’s first nonprofit fighting sex discrimination in the courts, to championing global legal reform through U.S.-Russia legal exchanges. With Betsy, she brings the same bold clarity and conviction to the page, charting a personal and political journey that reshaped the law—and her own life.

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