Opting out?

A feminist law student transfers from Boalt Hall to the University of Arizona, and she couldn't be happier.

My law school career began at the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. My experience there as a woman was both positive and disappointing. Although sixty percent of my incoming class was female, only about ten percent of the students who spoke in class were female. I was encouraged that so many women were entering the legal profession, but discouraged that the gender disparity, at least in regard to verbosity during class, continued.

I transferred to the University of Arizona at the beginning of my 2L year, a difficult move criticized by many. People told me both that I should not transfer to a lower-ranked law school, and that transferring to be with my boyfriend (a graduate student in astronomy who could not transfer himself) was anti-feminist and could hinder my legal career.