The book is a historical novel based on the first females that were accepted and lived on campus at Yale Yale Needs Women by Anne Gardiner Perkins is a historical novel based on the first females that were accepted and lived on campus at Yale starting the summer term of 1969. “This is an academic work although written in a very accessible style for the average reader,” said a review in goodreads.com. It said the book “started as a graduate paper and morphed into a dissertation over time.” The review also said Perkins “really allows readers into the lives of several of the students and one administrator in particular.” It said the author “straddles the line nicely between fitting in the comprehensive detailed research she managed and making it interesting enough that someone mighty think it was a novel.” Perkins grew up in Baltimore and attended Yale University, where she earned her BA in history and was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. She has spent her life in education, from urban high school teacher to elected school committee member. She has presented papers on higher education at leading conferences. Although Yale Needs Women’s principal focus is on, well, women at Yale, Perkins also weaves in a lot of events that were also happening at the time and impacted Yale life, such at the Black Panther movement and the Vietnam War.