Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics

The Feminist Mystique

Submitted by Ferguson

I am taking a seminar (the second one of my legal education but the first in which active participation is encouraged, if not mandated) but this one scares me in two very divergent ways. Firstly, the professor who teaches it was my first year torts professor and for whatever reasons (and I have confirmed reports that I am not crazy, that this indeed did happen), the woman had it in for me.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
Optional tags: feminism

Law school "bashed" my love of learning. Does it have to be this way?

Submitted by Ferguson

I am taking an amazing class at law school, the first one that I remember being truly excited to go to. It’s called Biblical Law, my first small seminar at law school, and the first class that has reminded me of the thrill of my undergraduate institution. The other classes I’ve taken--the first year curriculum and then a few other “highly recommended” courses, are done via large lectures with the other students either furiously typing away or playing solitaire on their computers--don’t stimulate me. I am diligent and hard-working, do the assigned reading, listen to the professor as much as one can listen to another person talking at me for 50 minutes straight, but in truth, I am bored. Law school doesn’t stimulate me like my undergraduate courses did. I don’t know what I thought law school was going to be when I made the decision to attend. I was in for a rude awakening...

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
Optional tags: Socratic method

Bringing the Women Back: Law School Paves the Way for Women in the Profession

Submitted by JMLiebman

I am no stranger to classrooms where one gender radically outnumbers the other. My undergraduate college continues to maintain a ratio of 1 man for every 3 women despite going co-ed four decades ago. As a graduate student in philosophy, I usually found myself just one of only 2 or 3 women in 20 person seminars. I entered law school at the University of Illinois eager for a more balanced classroom. I knew that most first tier schools have a 45/55 split in genders favoring men.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
Optional tags: University of Illinois, Students, Networking, Admissions

Two Kinds of Law Students: High-Roller Helens and Justice Janets

Submitted by Nora Farah

I am convinced that there are only two categories of law students on the first day of student orientation: the High-Roller Helens and Justice Janets. Helens have a million reasons why they want to be attorneys, all of which they accept in the form of cash, credit, or check. Helens are competitive and sneer at the prospect of being anything less than a corporate defense attorney, making the "big-bucks." Helens practically cannot have children, but they typically have all the toys they desire.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics

Perspective: From a women's college to a co-ed law class

Submitted by Victoria Tsoong

Coming directly from a women's college to law school, I confronted an unexpected hurtle--a co-ed classroom. In my youth, I attended co-ed schools, but was fortunate to take the opportunity to attend Scripps College of the Claremont Colleges. During college, I was able to gain confidence as a woman and was able to understand what it meant to be a woman in society. I emerged from Scripps confident and independent.

Despite the lessons learned from a women's college, I found that, even in this day and age, the legal realm is still adapting to women in executive positions. I had been warned of this fact when I decided to attend law school, but it became concrete during my first summer externship.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics

Why I joined the DePaul student chapter of the Women's Bar Association

Submitted by Tracy Walsh

This past semester I took jurisprudence. I felt that was the first time in law school that women were acknowledged in the curriculum. We studied feminist jurisprudence for two weeks, and how women's rights were reflected in Irish Brehon law. I had taken women's studies and sociology courses in college. But upon entering law school, I was just immersed in the maze that was the first year and forgot what it felt like to reflect on women in an academic setting.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics

My law school class is 60% female, but we still need a women's student group.

Submitted by Meghan Corman

I am fortunate to attend a law school where women are the majority. At Boalt Hall, approximately 60% of the students are women. Because of these numbers, I escaped many of the law school stereotypes, such as men speaking more often in class, or getting more face time with the professors. Perhaps these things do occur, however it is my perception that such gender stereotypes are not pervasive at Boalt Hall. In fact, some of my male classmates have complained that women are smarter, work harder, and get better grades, thus hurting their chances of performing well when graded on a curve.

A more common complaint about the female majority involves the Boalt Hall Women's Association (BHWA). As an active general member and former board member, I often hear, "Why does Boalt need a women's association?"

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
Optional tags: Women's Associations

Hearing Voices

Submitted by Toni Telles

I grew up as the second of three daughters born to "working-class" parents. When I was younger, it was rare to see either of my parents come home from work unexhausted. Growing up, most girls my age weren't expected to contribute the type of chores my sisters and I were; my father had no sons and, as children, we did all we could to help, regardless of gender roles. Consequently, as time went on, I became quite an "atypical" young woman. I was often outspoken in the classroom.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics

Opting out?

Submitted by Tiffany Bartz

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.

Topic: Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics

Law: A Trade or a Profession?

Submitted by bethb

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, two female professors from Boston University Law School addressed this issue.

Apparently, in a prior article, Cameron Stracher, publisher of New York Law School Law Review and co-director of the program in Law & Journalism, berated legal education and the qualification of law students. He argued that practicing law does not require intellectual work, that it is a skill acquirable by mere practice and repetition.