The Dean's Column

UWLS Gender Study

November 21, 2005

On Thursday, I had the privilege of interviewing the Chief Justice of our State Supreme Court, Gerry Alexander. The Chief Justice has been a judicial leader for more than thirty years in our state. He has served as a judge on three different court levels---Superior Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court. He is a compassionate, clear-thinking jurist and someone with an engaging personality. My reason for opening this article in this way is that the Chief Justice is also in a special position the remarkable evolution of our profession since he graduated from our law school forty-one years ago. During our conversation he talked about one of the most important developments during this time—the increase of women in our profession.

There were only four women in the Chief Justice’s law class. Today, women account for more than fifty-three percent of our student body. We have four women justices on our State Supreme Court (down from five after Justice Faith Ireland left the bench). We have twenty-four women faculty members. While we should, and do, applaud these developments that bring different experiences and broader perspectives to our study of law, we also need to recognize that much work still needs to be done. The educational and professional experiences of women lawyers have been filled with challenge. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor talks poignantly about the lack of opportunities she had as a law graduate during the 1950s. Today, many women professionals echo similar stories.

In 2001, our law school encouraged a longitudinal study of women’s experiences here at UW. That Gender Studies Committee sought to examine the level of gender disparity here by examining the psychological and physical health of women students as they matriculated and enter the profession. Professors Deborah Maranville, Julia Gold, and Helen Anderson, along with Law Librarian Mary Whisner, all actively participated in this study, which involved surveying students from the past five years. I thank all of my faculty colleagues and everyone else who has been associated with this project.

The study examined the overall academic success of women students, compared rates of participation between women and men in classes, student extra and cocurricular programs like the Moot Court Honor Board, law journals, and organizational leadership. The study also collected information about the sense of satisfaction realized by women law students. The good news is that overall, our school showed smaller disparities between women and men’s experiences as students. Of course, there is always an opportunity for us to improve. The study suggested that other teaching methods should be employed to encourage greater participation by women students, both in and outside the classroom. Clearly, we need to work to continue to recruit and retain women faculty and staff members because their presence provides both a perceived and real encouraging and inclusive environment.

It should not surprise readers that many women entered law school with slightly different professional goals than many men. More women identified public service as a primary reason for coming to law school. The study also noted that generally, UWLS students are more community oriented when they enter law school than students at some other law schools, but that this orientation does drop somewhat during law school. The disappointment associated with the decline in the intrinsic values behind the choice to come to law school appears to affect female students even more than their male counterparts. We recognize that our school needs to continue to encourage civic engagement and public service in a myriad of ways to keep all of us focused on building a stronger sense of public responsibility.

The very possibility that there could be sexual harassment at our school was the most disturbing find in the report. Although reported claims of harassment or unwarranted sexual innuendo is low at four percent (with twelve out of two hundred seventy-nine students reporting that they had “personally experienced sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual behavior at the law school.”), the simple matter is that no harassment will be tolerated. We must all examine our behaviors and work to eliminate sexual misbehavior from our actions in and outside class, by students, faculty, or staff. We will also underscore our policy to visitors to our campus, whether those visitors come to serve as judges for our competitions, or as potential employers. Simply put, zero tolerance. Report any, and all, incidents to an administrative dean, including me.

Our law school community is a thriving place, filled with incredible energy, hope and promise. Each of us must examine her or his behavior to ensure that we continue to think about how our actions might be, and are, perceived by others. Just as our State Supreme Court Chief Justice has witnessed the evolution of our profession, let us help to make the next evolutionary step come even more quickly--true equality of opportunity and nondiscrimination.

P.S. If you have not read the report, I encourage you to do so.

W. H. Knight Jr.
Dean and Professor of Law