UMLawyer

Speaker says law schools still have a way to go
before classrooms become gender-blind

Although women submit half the law school applications each year and make up half of the entering classes at most law schools, law school experiences remain very “gendered,” said Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke.

“Women feel less comfortable talking in class because the messages of legal education remain quite masculine in that they emphasize aggressive argumentation and competitiveness and clear-cut winners and losers,” said Franke in a public address at the UM law school in October. Women also are in the minority of most law faculty, which has a “tremendous effect on how comfortable women students feel in a classroom,” she added.

Franke, co-director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at Columbia University Law School in New York, closed the UM law school’s yearlong lecture series Diversity in Legal Education. Her speech, “Engendering Legal Education,” focused on her research involving the intersection of gender and sexuality and the legal regulation of identity.

“Diversity in legal education is an enormous thing,” Franke said. “If legal communities are not diverse and sensitive to the range of issues that people of all sorts bring to them, then we have a problem of justice and fairness.”

Differences in classroom participation are but one of many examples. Women tend to speak less often in class, volunteer less and have less confidence when they raise their hands, Franke said. She also cited studies pointing to the unconscious favor of male students in various law schools across the country.

“We have not come far enough in legal education,” Franke said. “As long as legal education remains deeply gendered, the profession of law will remain gendered as well. We need to remain vigilant in the ways we teach and mentor students. Whether we like it or not, sex has an effect on our classes.”

In his introduction of Franke, Professor Michael Hoffheimer referred to her as being “without a doubt one of the most original and provocative legal scholars in America today.”

“She is a major player in world legal scholarship and an active force in legal change,” he said.

First-year student Kim Watson of Clinton said that although she had never considered classroom dynamics, she plans to watch for the circumstances Franke discussed.

“I thought she was definitely interesting,” Watson said. “She talked about a lot of ideas that we don’t discuss.”

Josh DeBold, a first-year student from Monticello, agreed with Watson. “It was really beneficial to hear what women are thinking, and I was surprised to hear some of her comments,” he said.

A prolific writer, Franke’s many articles include “The Domesticated Liberty of Lawrence v. Texas” (2004), “Sexual Tensions of Post-Empire” (2004) and “Legal Aspects of Gender Assignment” (2003).

Other lecturers in the series included disabilities expert Peter Blanck, professor of law at the University of Iowa; Roy Brooks, a leading race relations expert and Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego; and Frank H. Wu, dean of Wayne State University Law School.

“The speakers in this lecture series are four of the most outstanding and influential people in the country on the subjects of civil rights, human rights and diversity,” said law school Dean Samuel Davis.

—Kara Givens is a student intern in the UM Department of Media and Public Relations.