Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2014

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.

Comments

This article was awarded the second place Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research in 2014.

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