Vaughns, K L --- "Women of Colour in Law Teaching: Shared Identities, Different Experiences" [2004] LegEdDig 40; (2004) 13(1) Legal Education Digest 10

Women of Colour in Law Teaching: Shared Identities, Different Experiences

K L Vaughns

[2004] LegEdDig 40; (2004) 13(1) Legal Education Digest 10

53 J Legal Educ 4, 2003, pp 496–504

Some commentators have observed that women of colour in the legal profession as a whole bear the burden of both identities and the privileges of neither. Others have made similar observations about the experiences of women of colour in the legal academy. Indeed, many have noted how inhospitable the law school environment can be for both women and people of colour in general.

As with any progressive movement for social change, the story of women of colour in law teaching begins with the early pioneering women who intrepidly ventured there. After the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s ushered greater numbers of women of all colours into law schools, the first wave of women of colour in law teaching began in the early 1970s. Given the general absence of white women and people of colour in the legal academy, non-white women in this first wave were unlikely to benefit from the guidance of any mentors like themselves.

On a positive note, the number of women of all colours entering law school continued to increase well into the 1980s and 1990s, expanding the potential pool of female applicants for law faculty positions. The second wave of non-white women in law teaching had potential mentors to counsel them on the perils of the struggle to survive in the legal academy, assuming they were lucky enough to be at an institution with more than one woman of colour on the faculty.

Undoubtedly the experiences of women of colour will change with each successive group of beginning law teachers. But how women fare in the legal academy generally, especially women of colour, is a question for continuing debate. The odds of success in the legal academy are stacked against women of colour from the start. This is so for any number of reasons, but a few come quickly to mind. First, only a small number of women of colour occupy tenured or tenure-track positions. Second, the law school environment has always been perceived as hostile to outsiders, especially so-called misfits of all colours, classes, and sexual orientation. But perhaps the most debilitating factor that militates against success is the perception that people of colour are intellectually inferior or less well qualified.

More than for any other cohort, a perception exists that women of colour who teach law are less qualified than their white female or their male counterparts. A stigma also attaches to efforts to increase their hiring, because society tends to equate affirmative-action hiring with being less well qualified or, at least, lacking the type of merit or credentials or intellectual acumen that is assumed for white law teachers, especially white males.

One aspect of the law school environment that has especially bothered the author is a reluctance to acknowledge that her experiences in the classroom, and those of other people of colour, may well be different — sometimes vastly so — from those of her white peers. This observation about racial and/or gender inferiority brings forth concerns about stereotypes and subtle or even overt hostility sometimes expressed on student evaluations. Despite students’ positive observations, more credence seems to be given to negative student evaluations in promotion and tenure meetings.

Another potential obstacle to our success is that we must choose between being our essential self and expressing our own unique voice, or conforming to the white male paradigm. Notably, the ever present problem of racism in this country also impacts women of colour, excluded from the legal academy for the better part of the last century. Fortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision in Grutter v. Bollinger is a hopeful sign that in the immediate future schools will still seek to diversify their faculties along with their classrooms.

Many are the times that women of colour, in particular, communicate with another at a different institution if no other sympathetic soul is available to engage in so-called reality checks. But probably the greatest threat to their success is the perception that they do not measure up intellectually to their white peers, male or female.

Self-knowledge can be an advantage if one uses it to improve or make appropriate accommodations. But there is a downside to all these reality checks. Most important, the woman of colour must hold on to her true self, her essential identity. This is where their strength lies that enables them to even thrive and prosper. Concern about teaching, student evaluations, writing, and so on, can admittedly take its toll even in the most hospitable environment.

The heterogeneity of women of colour in legal education and the variety of their experiences offer the potential for rich collaborations scholastically and pedagogically. The argument for racial and gender diversity does not lead to a race-based degradation of pre-existing standards of excellence. Adding diversity merely enhances the richness of the entire enterprise, not to mention reflecting the real world.