Women criminal defence attorneys struggle with myriad moral and ideological conflicts inherent in representing men accused of violent crimes against women. This work explores how women attorneys manage those conflicts, how they use ideologies in defence of their work, and how they cope with the emotional stress of their professional lives.

Siemsen argues convincingly that the stresses of public defense work, including dealing with such burdens as California's stringently enforced three-strikes law, create much more conflict for women than intrinsic contradictions between feminist beliefs and professional ideologies. The longer a woman practices law, the author finds, the better she becomes at managing her emotions by strictly adhering to the constitutional ideal of protecting individual rights. An appendix, "Ambivalent Identities: Men of Color Who Prosecute Their 'Own,'" offers a comparative viewpoint of the experiences of African American male prosecutors. This insightful volume offers a unique lens through which to view the work lives of women criminal defense attorneys and sheds new light on how they resolve and survive the moral dilemmas and emotional stress of their jobs.