Margaret Brent lived in a male dominated world where men outnumbered women 6 to 1, females had no voting rights, and formal schooling for girls was a rarity. Colonial America in the mid-seventeenth century was oppressive for women to say
the least.
Brent helped evolve the perception of women with her tenacious spirit and pioneering attitude. She is widely considered to be the first female lawyer in America and one of the best lawyers of her time – she won each of the 124 court cases she was involved in. Brent has also been called the first North American feminist, one of the first great businesswomen in America, and she was the first female in Maryland to own property.
Women are still fighting for firsts 360 years after Brent began her law career. The Commission on Women in the Profession awarded Betty Roberts, a University Alumna, the Margaret Brent award last year for being the first woman
appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals, and later the first female to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court. The commission was founded by the American Bar Association in 1987, and Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the first chair.
A new Margaret is now leading the way, and at the University’s School of Law the percentage of women in many areas is well ahead of the national curve. When Margaret L. “Margie” Paris became the new dean in 2006 she was the first female dean of a law school in Oregon, and for the first time in the school’s 123-year history, she heads a law school whose entire senior leadership positions are all filled by women. Three associate deans report to Paris: Susan Gary, academic affairs; Jane Gordon, student and program affairs; and Jamie Moffitt, finance and operations.
“Academia has been faster to jettison some of the sexist notions in the practice,” Paris said. “Academia is also one of the places where women can strive.”
At the School of Law, women are squashing the old role of male dominance in the profession, and are one of the groups leading the nation toward equality in academia. Women make up 46 percent of the full-time faculty, 18 of the 39 positions, while the national average in 2006 was 36 percent according to a study by the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.
Women occupy 33 out of 42 positions in the administration and staff at the School of Law, and all three associate deans are women, compared with the national average of 45 percent according to the ABA study. The number of female students at the School of Law is consistent with the national average, and hovers just under 50 percent.
Such progress fosters more forward movement, and as the Director of the Small Business Clinic Jill Fetherstonhaugh said, the School of Law is popular with women because “you want to be in an environment where you are welcomed and feel comfortable.”
That welcome feeling for women wasn’t always present in law schools, and it took pioneers like Barbara Aldave to redefine the gender roles of women law students. Aldave and Jody Stahancyk were the first two women to be admitted to Phi Delta Phi, the legal fraternity whose membership list includes five U.S. presidents, 12 members of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Prime Minister of Canada and Robert F. Kennedy.
The memberships of these two women caused such uproar that their chapter, Chase Inn, was expelled by the national fraternity in the early 1970s. After being allowed back in the following year, Aldave is now an honorary member of her chapter, and is also the Loran L. Stewart Professor of Business at the University’s School of Law and the Director of the Center for Law and Entrepreneurship.
“In my opinion, the biggest change in the UO law school in the last 35 years – both in terms of visibility and in terms of importance – is the presence of women in substantial numbers on the faculty, in the student body, and now, of course, in the administration,” Aldave said in the School of Law’s alumni magazine Oregon Lawyer.
The steps these women have taken throughout history are encouraging, but sexism and inequality are still very much alive in the professional world of law. Of the 1.11 million lawyers in the U.S., only 30 percent are women, and in 2005 the average woman lawyer’s weekly salary was 77 percent of her male counterpart’s weekly salary – nearly $400 per week less – according to the ABA study. Women make up only 23 percent of District and Circuit Court judges, 30 percent of ABA members, and in private practice women make up a staggeringly low 17 percent
of partnerships.
Minority women face an even tougher uphill battle as they make up just 1.48 percent of partners and 9.16 percent of associates according to a report by The Association For Legal Career Professionals. Out of the 226 total law school deans, only five are minority women, all five are African-American, and female minorities make up only 7 percent of all full-time teaching resources.
Women such as Brent, Paris, and Aldave have helped dispel the archaic stereotypes of females in the legal profession and academia, but the push for equality has also taken on new and, in some cases, unlikely advocates. The legal television dramas “Law and Order”, “Ally McBeal” and others, cast strong women in leading roles and prominent positions.
These shows create a media induced legitimacy for female attorneys in the real world. The ABA adopted Goal IX that supports the “full and equal participation in the legal profession by minorities, women and persons with disabilities, and requires the ABA to develop and encourage initiatives that will ensure full and equal participation of minorities, women and persons with disabilities in bar activities,” according to the Goal IX Report Card. There are also local organizations helping to further the equality of the legal profession such as Oregon Women Lawyers.
Typical of many visionaries and leaders, Paris humbly acknowledges those who came before her as the true pioneers, and said, “It makes me realize that I am not in that generation that had to come first, but it was my mother’s generation that had to come first in many ways. It gives me a sense of gratitude to be here now.”
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