I’ve encountered gender-bias of varying degrees throughout my life. I want to relate an example of gender-bias I encountered decades ago, during my first year of law school. Looking back on it, I find it almost laughable. When you read this story, you may agree.
My story exemplifies gender-bias by a fellow law student. I was one of a small number of women law students in my class—we made up just over four percent of the total. Although most of my male classmates treated me with respect, there were exceptions, and this classmate represents the worst of them.
To set the scene, I was an enthusiastic participant in the law school’s moot court program, the Ames Moot Court competition. My participation ended in the middle of my second year of law school only because the program’s absurd “team” structure eliminated my team—not me. I did well enough to move on, but my team as a whole did not. I wasn’t happy about it because I truly enjoyed participating in Ames.
During our first year of law school, all students were required to take part in the Ames program. Here‘s how it worked: In the fall semester, students were randomly assigned to participate in a fictitious lawsuit and had to play the part of either the plaintiff’s attorney or the defendant’s attorney. We were expected to research the most important issues, write a brief on behalf of our client, and then show up in person before a panel of three judges to argue our case.
In the fall semester, I was assigned to a thorny contracts issue, and I spent a lot of time doing research in the large law school library. In this pre-internet era, I would read case law in the bound reporters on the shelves of the library. I would then transcribe relevant case law onto index cards and yellow legal pads, planning to use helpful precedents in my argument.
My opponent that fall was a wisecracking student from the Cleveland area. He was apparently distraught that his opponent was a “girl.” I was told that he was overheard complaining that it worked to his disadvantage whether he won or lost. His complaint went like this: “If you win, you’ve only beaten a girl. And if you lose, you’ve lost to a girl!” When I learned that this concept dominated his thinking, I was furious and even more determined to beat him if I could.
I did a lot of my research in the library at night, after dinner. One night, I was transcribing a helpful precedent from a court that followed Anglo-American law. It was just fine to use case law from any jurisdiction that followed Anglo-American law. The court reporter I had come across was not in a jurisdiction in the U.S. or the U.K. It was in Alberta, Canada, which followed Anglo-American law. My opponent caught a glimpse of me and meandered over to where I was sitting. He took a look at the court reporter I’d found and commented, “Scraping the bottom of the barrel, huh?” I coolly answered him, pointing out that this court’s holding was perfectly acceptable, a great one supporting my case, and I planned to use it. He smirked and wandered off.
What was the outcome of our argument, held in November, just before Thanksgiving weekend? We appeared in a small room at the law school to argue our case in front of a panel of three judges. The judges for each case varied. Our panel was made up of three third-year students who had earned an excellent law-school record.
How did I do? I won more points on both the written brief and the oral argument, thereby defeating my opponent. Too bad his father, a practicing lawyer in Cleveland, had made a special trip to witness our oral argument, probably assuming that his son would triumph over a “girl.”
What happened next? During the spring semester, I was required to pair up with my fall opponent, and together we opposed a pair of other students in a new case. My Cleveland classmate suddenly had a brand-new attitude, quite happy to work with a “girl” to produce a winning brief. Which we did.
I like to think that this triumph over gender-bias led to my classmate’s permanently rethinking his previous attitude. I wonder whether it really did. But it certainly left me even more determined to fight gender-bias—and win—for the rest of my life.
susanjustwrites
Susan Just Writes 