On being a female law professor: Dispatches from the frontline

Abstract:

Weaving data from law and the social sciences with her experience as an international graduate student at Yale Law School and then as a chaired professor who has taught in numerous universities across the globe, the author explores the current moment of backlash against the promotion of the values of equality, diversity, and inclusion. When constitutions are under strain, as they are today in many parts of the world, the rights of women and LGBTQ+ persons are among the first to be targeted and restricted. This Afterword highlights the role of law schools as gatekeepers to the gilded profession of lawyering and their heightened responsibility to guard against the dispossession of rights of women and sexual minorities, which is both a bellwether for and a consequence of today’s era of deepening polarization and democratic backsliding.