Guinier study shows men outperform women at Law School

A recent study completed by Law School Professor Lani Guinier has found that female law students are not performing as well academically as male law students at the University. Conducted between 1989 and 1992 at the Law School, the study included data from a self-reported survey, interviews and academic performance reports from students of both genders. Guinier's findings are scheduled to be published in the November 1994 issue of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, which, due to printing delays, has not yet been released to the public. "Women are consistently performing less successfully than men in their first year of law school, creating a gap," Law School Dean Colin Diver said. "This gap persists until the third year when the gap slightly decreases in size." According to Diver, women admitted into the Law School tend to have higher grade point averages than men, although the men score higher on the Law School Admissions Test. "This is not just a phenomenon at the University, but it is a nationwide trend," he said. The study also suggests that women are not having positive experiences at the Law School and feel "excluded." "[First year] was like a frightening out-of-body experience," the Law Review article cites one female student saying. "Lots of women agree with me. My voice from that year is gone." A preliminary study has just been released by the Law School Admission Council that supports Guinier's conclusions. The study collected data from 160 law schools across the nation. "I expected our data to look more like the undergraduate trends where women are out-performing the men," said Linda Wightman, vice president for operations, testing, and research at LSAC. A study printed in the January 1994 issue of the Harvard Law Review also found that female Harvard Law students are "less happy" then men. Diver said several open forums and faculty meetings have been held to discuss Guinier's study. "This study certainly has raised a troubling fact," said Heidi Hurd, associate dean of academic affairs at the Law School. In response to the results of the study, Diver has commissioned a follow-up study that will be conducted by a committee headed by Hurd. "We want to inquire into the profile of incoming law students," Hurd said. "We also want to examine what we are doing in the classroom and what the impact of class size is on students." The Socratic method of teaching which is used primarily in first year classes is suspected to be one of the "culprits" contributing to the differential between men and women. "It is one that men warm up to much more than women, although Socratic professors are the most popular," Diver said. The law students' undergraduate majors will also be included as a variant in the follow-up study because women tend to concentrate in humanities and social sciences whereas men study science, business and engineering, Hurd said. Guinier was unreachable for comment.

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