Fewer Women Join Law School

The number of women accepting spots at Harvard Law School declined this year to the lowest level since 1986, Law School officials have confirmed.

According to Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid Joyce P. Curll, 38 percent of the school's first-years are women.

That number is down from 40 percent the year before and from an all-time high of nearly 45 percent in 1989.

The decrease is the third straight since 1990. It comes one year after charges of misogyny among staff members at the Harvard Law Review and two years after the brutal murder of a female legal scholar near the Harvard campus.

But Curll said the trend likely has nothing to do with the incidents of the past two years, and is instead consistent with the declining enrollment of women at other prestigious private law schools.

"I don't have any evidence that either the controversies on campus or anything related to the media has contributed [to the decrease]," she said. "The fact is that other top law schools have seen a similar decline."

The admissions dean added that the drop is not significant.

"This is not a dramatic difference between the applicants and those enrolled over the course of the last couple years," Curll said. "It just varies from year to year."

This year, the Law School admitted 800 applicants, 39 percent of whom are women. And of 558 who matriculated into the graduate school, 38 percent are women.

Financial concerns--made worse by the recession--may have a role in the trend, said Curll.

"There's some belief that women are, in this economy, less likely to apply to law school," she said. "Since we have a national pool here, it's somewhat my sense that women may have made the decision in larger numbers to apply to state schools...[or] schools closer to home. I have some evidence that for people from [some] places...cost might be a contributing factor."

Some students questioned that explanation, however.

"I don't see why a slow economy would impact the number of women applying to law school," said Linda J. Dunn, a second year student and co-president of the Women's Law Student Association. "It might impact the number of students overall."

Dunn agreed with Curll that incidents at the Law School likely did not discourage women from applying. But fellow association Co-President Claudia T. Salomon remained skeptical.

"We're talking about a law school that has such a small percentage of women faculty and with the environment of last spring that was hostile to women," Salomon said. "It's the lack of women faculty here that I think would make the school less inviting for women students."

Both Dunn and Salomon said the decline merits further investigation.

"I think it's an unfortunate statistic, one which we should be concerned about," Dunn said. "I certainly would like to look into it."