Convictions: Slate's blog on legal issues

Gender and Subject Areas

Deb's post on "Women in Law" raises an interesting question about why different subject areas tend to have different gender ratios among law profs. I've wondered about this myself. For example, in my own area, criminal law and procedure, most of the junior hires at "top 10" law schools in the last few years have been women.  They include Jeannie Suk (Harvard), Erin Murphy (Berkeley), Rachel Barkow (NYU), Rachel Harmon (Virginia), and Eve Brensike Primus (Michigan). I'm not sure why that is, and it could just be a coincidence, but it's a pretty interesting trend.