By Laura Stelianou and Ali Szemanski, on behalf of the Shatter the Ceiling Committee of the Women’s Law Association
This year marks the first year in the history of the Harvard Law Review (Law Review) that the number of female editors exceeds the number of male editors.[1] Twenty-two men and twenty-four women joined the newest class of editors this summer.
Gender equity on the prestigious law journal has come into sharp focus over the past few years.[2] Some new editors believe that a shift in Harvard Law School (HLS) admissions may have contributed to the historical shift in Law Review membership. Law Review does not release data on how many people completed the competition,[3] so the number of women seeking editor positions and the acceptance rate for women remain unknown.[4] It is known, though, that the HLS class of 2019 is the first class in which women outnumber men. New Law Review editor Molly Brown noted that while the shift in the Law Review’s composition is wonderful, she “also expected it, since a majority of the class of 2019 are women.”
However, the Law Review made concerted efforts this year to increase its female membership. “I am proud to get to work alongside these remarkably talented new editors,” said ImeIme Umana, the journal’s first black female president. “Gender parity on the Law Review is exciting, and it underscores the journal’s broader commitment to fostering an inclusive legal conversation.”
The competition effort was spearheaded by Harvard Law Review Vice President Seth Berliner. Asked about the process, Berliner said, “We worked deliberately to design and administer a competition that was fair to all 1Ls, regardless of gender or any other personal characteristic. The historic diversity of Volume 132 is a testament to the importance of that work.”
Similarly, Ginger Jackson-Gleich, a Harvard Law Review editor who coordinated outreach and recruitment efforts for this year’s competition, emphasized the number of people on the Harvard Law Review who made this historic gender shift a reality. “So many people worked incredibly hard to reach out to 1Ls, to address myths about who ‘belongs’ or ‘doesn’t belong’ on the Review, and to emphasize that the work we do publishing legal scholarship is done better when it is shaped by many different voices and perspectives,” Jackson-Gleich said. “Doing that outreach was an enormous undertaking, but we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.”
The Harvard Law Review participated in efforts to encourage women and other historically underrepresented groups to apply and complete the Law Review competition, some in partnership with the Women’s Law Association (WLA). In addition to several larger informational panels for all students, the Harvard Law Review offered “Coffee Chats” to 1Ls considering applying. Alexa Kissinger, the Harvard Law Review’s Managing Editor, explained that while the chats were available to all 1Ls, “we made a concerted effort to have women do chats with other women to increase the one-on-one interaction with members and demystify the competition.” Kissinger noted that one-on-one meetings are especially important because they allow women to ask questions they might be uncomfortable asking in a larger panel setting.
New Harvard Law Review editor Leila Bijan noted that her coffee chat assuaged her concerns and helped her finalize her decision to participate, adding: “After our conversation, I could really picture myself as an editor.”
Additionally, the Harvard Law Review partnered with the WLA to target potential female applicants and encourage them to complete the competition. In March, the WLA invited all 1L women to a mixer with female members of the Harvard Law Review, the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, and the Board of Student Advisors. Members of the organizations provided advice and encouragement to 1Ls through both informal conversations and speeches from organization leaders. Law Review President Umana described why she valued her experiences at the Harvard Law Review and encouraged women to apply.
On the fourth day of the competition, the WLA also hosted a Writing Competition Study Break. The breakfast event was more than just a way to provide breakfast. It targeted an issue that the Harvard Law Review has identified in the past: according to the Harvard Law Review, women drop out of the competition mid-week at higher rates than men. Seeing that many other women were applying was a source of empowerment for the 1Ls. Alongside bagels and muffins stood a poster with words of encouragement and personal stories from female Harvard Law Review editors.
Bijan attended the study break and remembers reading about an editor who thought there was no way she could finish the competition and had to pull an all-nighter on the last night of the competition. Bijan recalled the story later when she worked through the night: “I ended up having to pull two all-nighters in a row and that story made me view the all-nighters as signs of good luck.” Ultimately, several attendees at the study break went on to become Harvard Law Review editors.
Beyond planned events, women shared stories of finding camaraderie with other women, which helped them complete the competition. Bijan shared that her female best friend was there alongside her throughout the competition, from picking up the packet to daily breaks “where we repeatedly reminded each other that we could do it and promised each other that no matter what, we would submit something at the end of the week.”
Brown shared a similar sentiment: “I had a lot of friends—mostly women—who I knew were applying, and that encouraged me to also apply. Throughout the whole week, these friends were a great support.”
Results of the competition next summer will show if Law Review will maintain gender parity for a second year. Forty-eight percent of the class of 2020 are women.[5] WLA’s Shatter the Ceiling Committee looks forward to continued efforts to achieve and maintain gender parity on not only the Harvard Law Review, but across the law school campus.
[1] The nature of the statistics and information upon which this article is based represent gender in the binary terms of male and female, or man and woman. The WLA recognizes that HLS students and Law Review editors may not subscribe to gender binary norms and does not mean to impose normative gender identity upon these individuals.
[2] For a detailed analysis of the Women’s Law Association (WLA)’s Shatter the Ceiling Committee’s analysis of gender differences on the Harvard Law Review, see Eileen Kim, Marina Shkuratov & Mollie Swears, Gender Disparities at HLS: Still Room for Improvement, Harvard Law Record (May 15, 2017), http://hlrecord.org/2017/05/gender-disparities-at-hls-still-room-for-improvement/. WLA’s statistical analysis of membership for 2017 is forthcoming.
[3] Each year, 1L students interested in joining Law Review participate in a week-long writing competition, which commences after the end of the academic year. The writing competition consists of two parts—a subcite portion, which assesses the technical and substantive editing abilities of participants, and a case comment portion, which assesses the writing and analytical skills of participants. See Harvard Law Review, About, https://harvardlawreview.org/about/ (last visited Sept. 27, 2017). The competition submissions undergo double-blind grading by the current HLR editors. Ultimately, forty-six editors are selected from the pool of applicants: twenty of these editors are selected based solely on competition scores; seven of these editors, one from each 1L section, are selected on a combination of competition scores and 1L grades; three editors are selected based on grades and competition scores, without regard to their section; and the final sixteen editors are selected through a holistic, anonymized review process. Participants can opt to indicate their racial or ethnic identity, physical disability status, gender identity, first-generation college student status, and/or transfer status on both a form and in an expository statement, which are considered during the holistic review process. Thus, for nearly two-thirds of the editors spots available each year, gender is not taken into consideration at all.
[4] Law Review began taking gender into consideration during its 2014 selection process. See Carl Straumsheim, Tackling Gender Disparity, Inside Higher Ed (Feb. 27, 2013), https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/27/harvard-law-review-consider-gender-editor-selection-process.
[5] See Harvard Law School, HLS Profile and Facts, Class of 2020, http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/hls-profile-and-facts/ (last visited Oct. 2, 2017).
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