Law Students

"Diversifying" at Work, but Is It Working? Snippets from the Dialogue Regarding the Recruitment of Women Law Profs

By Ursula Furi-Perry Esq.

Image: 

ufuriperry.jpg

It?s no secret that there are fewer women law profs than male counterparts: according to the American Association of Law School?s 2007-2008 data, women make up 36.9% of law teachers.  For the same year, the ABA reported that female first-years make up 47.4% of the 1L population; in fact, that number has been hovering in the upper-40s since the late 1990s.  

Over the past couple of years, various people in the profession have weighed in about the potential problems with the recruitment of women law profs, along with potential reasons why potential problems exist. Snippets from their discussions make for an interesting dialogue. Often, issues in the recruitment of women law profs get lumped together with issues in recruitment of minority law profs, all under the heading of ?diversifying.?

According to one article, institutions in general are attempting to ?diversify,? but may not understand how best to structure their recruiting efforts in order to understand and attract diverse candidates. ?In particular, recruitment has taken place without an understanding of the social forces that shape the professional socialization and workplace satisfaction of women and minority faculty. The use of affirmative action in academia to increase the representation of women and minority faculty, for example, has often resulted in workers' perception that they are tokens or outcomes of reverse discrimination practiced on White men.?

The AALS (through which much formal recruiting of faculty takes place) has a formal statement in place regarding increasing diversity in legal academia. It reads:

 ?AALS' commitment to equality of opportunity and diversity reflects the judgment of the member schools that these are core values in legal education and in the legal profession. The objective reaches beyond simply ensuring access to all who are qualified. It seeks to increase the number of persons from underrepresented groups in law schools, in the legal profession and in the judiciary in order to enhance the perception of fairness in the legal system, to secure legal services to all sectors of society, and to provide role models for young people.? 

But having a statement and putting it to practice are two different things.

Full post as published by Ms. JD on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).