The Constitutional Equality of Women

For young women coming of age today, their equality with men seems assured.  As youngsters they’ve played on co-ed sports teams; they’ve often been more successful than boys in school; they’ve pursued careers in previously male-dominated fields like math and science, medicine and law.  For them, women have always been able to vote, abortion has always been legal, and women have reached high places in politics.  Many probably have mothers (and fathers) who came of age during and after the second wave of feminism, believing they would raise their daughters to believe in their capacity to be equal citizens.

It might surprise some women, then, to learn that women’s equality is not guaranteed, at least not constitutionally.

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Ponderings of a Law Professor: Moving from Law School to Law Practice

(Editor’s note:  Professor Mazzie’s June post for the Ms. JD blog remains relevant, as last year’s law graduates make their transitions from school to work, and current students contemplate their future paths.)

[T]housands of law students have graduated from their respective law schools [in May and June].  They will spend this summer studying for bar exams and possibly looking for work.  Most are probably ecstatic that law school is behind them and “real” legal work is ahead.  Perhaps, though, in August when their classmates begin to gear up for classes these graduates will have a moment of feeling left out – a sense of emptiness because for  years their lives have run on an academic calendar that will no longer apply to them.

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Ponderings of a Law Professor: Where Are Women’s Voices?

I hated the silence.  In law school classes where the professor relied solely on volunteers, I hated the silence and ended up raising my hand more often than not.  I found I was most interested and engaged in class not when there was lecture but when there was some sort of dialogue, and there needs to be more than one voice to dialogue.  I didn’t really want to hear my own voice all the time (and I’m certain my classmates didn’t want to hear it all the time, either), but I would offer it if no one else spoke up.

Maybe I’m remembering myself speaking more than I actually did.  Or maybe I was an anomaly.  A female law student quoted in a recent National Jurist postsaid that “it feels like men do most of the talking during class discussions.” And indeed they might.  Data from the 2010 Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) suggest that women do not speak up as much as men in law school classes.  The National Jurist reports that according to the LSSSE, which for 2010 surveyed 25,000 law students at 77 law schools, 47% of women students frequently ask questions in class, while 56% of male students do.  This, LSSSE notes, is an area “that needs attention.”

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