When attorney Wendy Murphy started trying cases involving violence against women and children, she learned the law was not applied equally to everyone.
“I noticed pretty early on that the court was treating women very differently,” said Murphy, “Especially when it was sexual crimes and domestic crimes.”
Over the past two years, Murphy wrote “Oh No He Didn’t!: Brilliant Women and the Men Who Took Credit for Their Work,” a book inspired by stories she encountered of women researchers, artists, and inventors who faced discrimination and injustice.
The book, in part, grew out of Murphy’s own experiences in court. After years of objecting to rulings she felt were discriminatory, Murphy found herself face to face with a judge whose words would change her life.
“I would say, ‘You can’t treat cases that are primarily about crimes against women differently and worse than other cases. That’s discrimination,’” Murphy recalled. “And this one judge pulled his glasses down off his nose — he was just exhausted [from] hearing me complain. He said, ‘Ms. Murphy, you are the government. Your job is to state the law, not complain about it. If you want to change the law, you have to get a different job.’”
So she did.
Murphy started providing legal services to women for free, hoping to win some key cases as a catalyst to change in the judicial system.
“I remember saying to my husband at the time, ‘I’m just going to do this for a year, and I’m going to work on a couple of cases … bring them up to a [higher] court, use this process to get the [higher] courts to change these systemic problems to be fairer to women.”
Fast-forward 30 years, and Murphy still advocates for women in her legal practice.
Telling Stories of Brilliance and Injustice
“I found myself both in the trenches doing activist, impact litigation on behalf of women all over the country, but also very much wanting to develop a scholarly expertise as well,” she said.
Murphy followed the calling and, 23 years ago, became a professor at New England Law.
Since then, she has been teaching a seminar to second- and third-year students on violence against women, specifically “the way the legal system is designed to facilitate, rather than prohibit, harm to women.”
As part of her research, Murphy examined the consequences of discrimination against women and came across the case of a woman whose work was credited to a man.
“I thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting. You know, this could be a whole section in my paper,’” she said.
“Then I said, ‘I think I’ll go read a book on this topic of men who took credit for women’s work,’ … and I couldn’t find a book.”
Murphy took it upon herself to gather the stories of women whose work had been stolen by men.
She wrote “Oh No He Didn’t!: Brilliant Women and the Men Who Took Credit for Their Work,” devoting each chapter of the book to the work of a different woman.
“I had to teach myself things like quantum mechanics and complicated physics … to be able to really showcase the meaning of the women’s work,” said Murphy.
“It was really, really hard,” she added.
When Murphy started talking openly about her book with other women, they started sharing their own stories.
“That’s kind of why I wrote the book,” she said. “If only to make people think, ‘Wow, these stories had never been told … maybe there are more stories. Or [maybe] something like that happened to me, and I think I’m going to start talking about it.’”
Preserving a Historic Meeting Place
As president of the Belmont Woman’s Club, Murphy has also been instrumental in preserving the historic Homer House, where artist Winslow Homer once painted and club members have gathered since the 1920s.
Historically, women’s clubs “were places [where] women were doing political activism,” said Murphy. They served as spaces for women to gather and talk about the things they cared about, she added. “The Belmont Woman’s Club is no exception.”
The club, which once was exclusively for women, now welcomes people of all genders.
“The thing I love most about the club is that we could not be more different from one another,” said Murphy, adding there are members of various political identities. “We get along great,” she said.
The club hosts speakers, fundraisers, and other activities to benefit Belmont; it also rents out the Homer House to other community groups.
During the height of the pandemic, Murphy said the club also sewed and distributed masks for elderly residents.
“We will do anything we can to serve the community,” she added.
Fighting for Justice and Weaving Community
Sami Baghdady, a lawyer and the treasurer of the Belmont Woman’s Club, described Murphy as “a fighter for those who can’t fight for themselves.”
Murphy continues to offer free legal services to women who would otherwise be unable to afford them and goes out of her way to support elderly residents, said Baghdady.
“I look back and I say, ‘Wow.’ How she has the time to do all that she does is remarkable to me,” he said.
“She gives so much of herself to those who are normally ignored by society,” he added. “Well, Wendy, she doesn’t ignore them.”
When asked about her hopes for her book, Murphy said she hopes people suffering from gender discrimination will band together to fight injustice.
“We need to come together, appreciate the sameness of our suffering, and, more importantly, appreciate the enormity of our power in unity,” she said.
“It’s a big ask,” said Murphy, “but I can try.”
More information about “Oh No He Didn’t!: Brilliant Women and the Men Who Took Credit for Their Work” can be found at cynren.com/catalog/p/ohnohedidnt, and the book can be found on Amazon. Additional Information about the Belmont Woman’s Club can be found at belmontwomansclub.com.
