2008 Woodie Awards
Students speak out on gender study
Hugo Torres
Issue date: 2/26/04 Section: News
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One-L Megan Wernke read the report but was not surprised by the findings. "It wasn't unexpected," says Wernke, noting that one could have predicted such findings by looking at previous studies about the number of women on Law Review as well as reports on women's grades. Even her own experiences as a 1L bear out the report's findings: "We only have two girls in class that talk [often]," says Wernke.
Fellow 1L Ravi Faiia agrees. "I think, on the whole, there are more men that talk," says Faiia, but overall he and Wernke have not noticed that women feel or are made to feel inhibited in class by peers or professors.
Tanya Sheridan, an LLM, also does not find anything about the way classes are run as inhibiting women. "I think the professors here are excellent. I don't think they encourage girls, but I also don't think they discourage them," said Sheridan. Men in class are treated the same, she notes.
Sheridan does point to a difference between her time here and her experiences in her native home, Ireland: "It's so professional here," says Sheridan, with methodical professors who lay out carefully crafted syllabi and reschedule missed classes. In Ireland, professors tend to be already overworked practitioners who juggle multiple responsibilities, and can often miss class due to a court hearing. Sheridan is pleased to find more resources here at HLS, though she has observed that "the diversity of opinions is a lot less," as there are few interactions with people in other fields. Every argument "always goes back to gay marriage or other legal issues," whereas back home Sheridan often would engage in conversation with people from other disciplines, resulting in broader discussions.