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The Feminist
Revolution in Legal Education
by Patricia Hughes
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The promise
(if not yet reality)
of
feminism is the
transformation
of legal
education and,
with it,
of law itself. |
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In this article, I want to
concentrate on two aspects of what I am pleased to call the feminist revolution
in legal education: the law school curriculum and women's actual experiences in
"getting through the day" in law school. The promise (if not yet reality) of
feminism is the transformation of legal education - and with it, of law
itself.
The revolution is far from complete. In some places, the seeds
are barely sown and run the risk of being washed out by the storm of reaction.
Everywhere, women must continually assert our place and right to be full
participants in the curriculum, and justify that the curriculum should reflect
our experiences. In yet other places, the word "feminist" is appropriated by
those who use it to refer to "strident extremists," or "tiresome hags." This
game of word association is intended to make feminism a bad word, one to which
antagonism by students and professors is warranted.
Nevertheless, an ever growing corps of theorists, female and
male, have contributed to an expanding feminist critique and rewriting of the
core area of law. Equally important, and integral to this challenge to the
curriculum, we are changing how women are treated in the law school
environment.
A Women-Centered Law School
In 1975, Adrienne Rich
spoke of a "woman-centered" university and warned that this concept would
appear "biased" or "outrageous." And yet, she said, listen to how
"man-centered" university sounds:
What we have at present is a
man-centered university, a breeding ground not of humanism, but of masculine
privilege. As women have gradually and reluctantly been admitted into the
mainstream of higher education, they have been made participants in a system
that prepared men to take up roles of power in a man-centered society, that
asks questions and teaches "facts" generated by a male intellectual tradition,
and that both subtly and openly confirms men as the leaders and shapers of
human destiny both within and outside academia (1).
Nearly twenty years later, Rich's description remains in
considerable measure appropriate; yet it may not be so far-fetched to speak of
the glimmering of a "women-centered law school," perhaps an "equity-centered
law school."
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La révolution
féministe dans le milieu de l'éducation juridique
par
Patricia Hughes
Dans toutes les facultés de droit, les femmes
doivent continuellement faire valoir leur place et leurs droits pour participer
pleinement et prouver que les programmes d'études devraient
refléter leur vécu. Toutefois, une troupe grandissante de
théoriciennes féministes jouent un rôle clé dans la
critique de plus en plus vive dont les fondements du droit font l'objet et
demandent une modification de ces derniers.
Le langage utilisé a constitué le premier
volet de la remise en question. Puis, les femmes ont insisté pour
être représentées (élaboration des lois, recueil de
jurisprudence, articles, salle de classe). Insister pour que les femmes soient
reconnues revient à révéler que l'univers du droit est
profondément masculin. Depuis une dizaine d'années, des
étudiantes ont établi dans de nombreuses facultés de droit
des groupes féministes ou des groupes de la femme et le droit. Des cours
d'études de la femme ont été lancés et dans les
cours qu'elles enseignent les féministes commencent à exposer
l'optique féministe.
Dans le corps professoral, la façon dont sont
traitées les femmes s'est améliorée, ce qui ne veut pas
dire que beaucoup de professeurs ne se sentent pas encore vulnérables,
isolées et harcelées. Il serait faux d'affirmer que les choses
progressent à une allure uniforme; toutefois, les femmes évoluant
dans le milieu du droit trouvent constamment des moyens de le transformer.
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