Why Top Law Schools Have Fewer Women Law Professors

Countless individuals have made remarkable strides in advancing equality, but the work is far from over, especially for women in the legal field. Iowa set an early precedent by admitting Arabella Mansfield to the bar in 1869, and pioneers like Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett became the first American women law instructors in 1896. Yet, despite these breakthroughs, systemic barristers persisted. Dr. Eleanor T. Glueck, despite attending law school in 1928 to research criminology and holding a doctorate in education, was never able to hold a teaching position. Between 1900 and 1945, only three women secured tenure or held tenure-track positions at an AALS law school. It wasn’t until 1967 that sex discrimination in law school hiring was explicitly prohibited under federal law by Lyndon B. Johnson’ s Executive Order 11375. Even then, informal hiring practices in the 1970s continued to exclude women from faculty positions. As late as 2003, only 17% of the tenured faculty at Harvard was female.