Strength in Numbers As the fraction of female students nears one half, women are transforming the way schools teach By Ted Gest Not so long ago, America's law schools were mostly male preserves. As recently as 1970, more than 90 percent of students were men, and some professors made a point of calling on the few women in their classes only on periodic "Ladies' Days." Former Attorney General Janet Reno, a 1963 Harvard law graduate, recalls then Dean Erwin Griswold asking incoming women at an annual tea to justify holding a place that could have gone to a man. Hannah Arterian, now a dean at Arizona State University, says that whenever female law students at the University of Iowa in the early 1970s spoke up in class, they were made to feel that they were "representing [their] ***-it was awful." It took three decades, but women have achieved parity, at least on one measure. For the first time last fall, more women than men applied to the nation's 183 accre***ed law schools. Female enrollment in the class of 2004 is nearly 50 percent. Walk into just about any law school, and the change is readily apparent. At American University law school in Washington, D.C., whose 60 percent female enrollment is one of the nation's highest, 16 of 19 students in a recent session of Prof. Susan Carle's employment law class were women. Across the country that same week at Boalt Hall, the law school at the University of California-Berkeley, 36 women and eight men heard Linda Hamilton Krieger lecture on job discrimination. Students cheered an announcement that the faculty had endorsed Krieger for a tenured position. Moreover, as the rosters of female students have expanded, more women have risen to leadership positions on law reviews and in student government. One school where women are doing well is the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where Heather Redmond, e***or of a student journal, says they are "aggressive and confident" because of an increase in the number of female faculty. As women have infiltrated law schools, they have argued that the content of some courses underplayed issues of special concern to them, and they have pushed successfully for changes. Twenty years ago, criminal law classes, for example, rarely mentioned rape and other forms of violence against women. ***ual harassment in the workplace was not a topic for textbooks and lectures on employment law. These issues are standard fare now. Required courses in the law of personal injuries are likely to include discussions of how female injury victims should be compensated for reproductive medical problems and for the value of lost work in the home as well as on the job. Law professors say that these changes reflect not simply the shifting interests of law school students but the evolution of many areas of law, thanks in large part to the work of the growing ranks of female professors. Recent scholarship by women "has persuaded lawyers to make new claims [on behalf of women] and encouraged judges to find in their favor," says Syracuse University law Prof. Leslie Bender. Another way that law schools have shifted in the wake of the influx of women is that they now put more emphasis on "clinics" where students learn skills by representing real clients. According to teachers, female students are more inclined than men to take part in programs that involve hands-on instruction in aiding people in need. 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, ***ual harassment, and disrespect shown to them by other students and faculty." The ABA urged the appointment of committees at each law school to monitor such issues, but only 10 had done so as of last summer. 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 inquire into 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 courses like contracts and constitutional law that all first-year students must take. How students fare in those classes can set 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 beyond choosing a female-friendly school, success in law school hinges on taking 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. For instance, Yale Law School noticed several years ago that women were not doing as well as men in obtaining prestigious clerkships with federal judges. An internal study found that the faculty (mostly male) was getting to know best the students who spoke more in class (mostly men). The result was fewer faculty recommendations for female students. Some women compounded the problem by undervaluing their credentials - deciding, for example, that their grades weren't good enough to justify seeking a clerkship. Yale and other schools have instructed teachers to encourage women who perform well to apply for clerkships. The next challenge for prospective female lawyers is to find ways of coping with high-pressure legal jobs, which can take a 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 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. <font size=4 color=green> Angelique</font>
