Judy Conti: Journal of Women and the Law

"I think there were less than a dozen journals focusing on gender at the time we decided to start this. Interestingly, we were the first journal at the law school that ever had to go through an approval process and make the case and earn the right to be a journal. But we did and we welcomed that... But there were other students, wrote like letters to the editors and op eds about why it was unnecessary and divisive, many of whom were women. So the internalized misogyny was alive, well, and living. But we, we stuck with it.” – Judy Conti, Class of 1994, on founding Journal of Women and the Law William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law. Vol. 1, no. 1, Fall 1994. In 1994, William & Mary law students published the inaugural issue of the William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law. At the time, there were few journals nationally that focused on gender-related legal issues. The Law School offered no courses on this topic. Conti and other law students worked to gain approval for the new journal, despite pushback from others in the community. In 2018, with approval from the founding editors, the journal changed its name to the Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice to reflect the more intersectional approach of its scholarship. The Journal published its 30th volume during the 2023-2024 school year. Listen to Judy Conti's oral history online.