Diversity and Inclusion in Law School and Higher Education
The Law Review Divide: A Study of Gender Diversity on the Top Twenty Law Reviews
Document Type
Law Review Article
Publication Date
5-2014
Keywords
diverse campus environment
Abstract
My goal in this Note is to provide the first comprehensive statistical analysis of independently reported and verified data on law review membership in order to determine whether or not a gender disparity exists on law reviews. I further hope that this analysis would indicate whether any given admissions process correlates particularly strongly with that gender disparity. Interestingly, no single selection method or even combination of selection methods appears to consistently yield any greater number of women than men; some law reviews with similar admissions processes have very different membership compositions by gender, and some law reviews with very different admissions processes have very similar membership compositions by gender.
One might interpret this as a rather bleak picture of women’s law review participation showing that no matter what a law review does, women will still have a more difficult time becoming members than men. I prefer instead to emphasize the non-universality of the gender disparity and suggest that the fact that seven of the twenty law reviews I studied did not display a significant gender disparity continues a positive narrative about women’s increasing participation in law schools and the legal profession.
