Law Schools' New Female Face
An influx of women as students has changed courses and attitudes
But although life in law school has improved dramatically for women, many still complain of second-class treatment. An American Bar Association committee that monitors discrimination against women at law schools says that female students "are more likely than men to experience an unfair grading system, silencing in the classroom, a significant dip in self-confidence, sexual harassment, and disrespect shown to them by other students and faculty." The ABA urged each law school to appoint a committee to monitor such issues, but only 10 had done so as of last summer.
Varied voices. This mixed picture means that applicants interested in how women fare at prospective schools should look beyond the enrollment numbers, concludes Linda Hirshman, a philosophy professor at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., who wrote A Woman's Guide to Law School (Penguin Books, 1999, $14.95). Perhaps the best indicator that a school values female voices, she says, is a strong contingent of women among the faculty and deans. Today, only about 20 schools have female deans, and just one fifth of full professors are women.
Applicants should find out whether female professors are teaching the heavyweight classes. Critics like law Prof. Marina Angel of Temple University in Philadelphia contend that many schools hire women "for the least prestigious, most insecure, nontenure track" positions like legal writing and research. Those subjects are important, she says, but not so crucial as the courses like contracts and constitutional law that all first-year students must take. How students fare in these classes often sets the tone for their three years in school.
Applicants also should check on the number of female students who do well enough to win coveted spots on law reviews and in academic honors programs. "Grades are the coin of the realm for later success," says Prof. Ann Bartow of the University of South Carolina-Columbia.
Hirshman and other advocates for women suggest that in addition to choosing a female-friendly school, students who want to succeed should take an active role in the back-and-forth that is a big part of virtually every class. Even if class discussion does not play a big role in grades, women who are silent won't be noticed by professors, who are key to placing students in top internships and jobs during school and after graduation.
The next challenge for prospective female lawyers is to find ways of coping with high-pressure legal jobs, which can take a big toll on families. A new study by the consulting firm Catalyst, based in New York City, reports that female law graduates anticipate staying at their jobs three fewer years than do men because they believe the heavy workloads are incompatible with raising children, among other reasons. Judge Mary Schroeder, who persevered as one of six female law students at the University of Chicago in the 1960s to come to head the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, calls for "new career patterns that will enable both women and men to take more time off for their families."
The profession will likely better accommodate lawyers with families when more women attain top jobs at the nation's law firms. In a first step toward this goal, some schools are helping students network with successful female lawyers. Last year, through a female student group, Tanya Miller, a third-year student at Arizona State University in Tempe, met several female law partners. "They went out of their way to be there for me [when] I needed advice," she says. She's starting work at a Phoenix law firm after she graduates this spring.
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