Maybe Law Schools Do Not Oppress Minority Faculty Women: A Critique of Meera E. Deo’s “Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia” (Stanford University Press 2019)

Authors

Dan Subotnik, Touro Law CenterFollow

Abstract

This essay tests Professor Meera Deo’s unsettling assertion that “implicit bias” in law schools is holding minority female and, to a lesser extent minority male, faculty back. It then presents her second, and more provocative claim, that minority faculty can generally offer better training in “solving complex problems.”

Regarding the former claim, Deo explains that minority women are not hired according to fair standards, not welcomed when they are hired, and not fairly evaluated for promotion. In addition, she argues that minority women professors are abused by their students. Because Deo barely tries to substantiate the second claim, it is dealt with only briefly in this article.

The finding here is that the principal claim is not proven. Close analysis of its components, along with Deo’s own statistics, shows that in spite of our failure to secure equality for all, our overwhelmingly liberal law faculties offer far more equitable treatment than Deo acknowledges. Deo is to be commended for dealing with an issue close to the heart of academic life today and for reporting some data that do not support her cause. In pitting race and gender groups against one another, however, Deo does serious damage to the self-understanding and sense of community of Americans both inside and outside the academy.

Recommended Citation

Subotnik, Dan (2021) "Maybe Law Schools Do Not Oppress Minority Faculty Women: A Critique of Meera E. Deo’s “Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia” (Stanford University Press 2019)," Touro Law Review: Vol. 37: No. 2, Article 9.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol37/iss2/9