The Pink Ghetto Pipeline: Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Legal Education
![handle is hein.journals/udetmr96 and id is 553 raw text is:
The Pink Ghetto Pipeline: Challenges
and Opportunities for Women in Legal
Education
RENEE NICOLE ALLEN, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE COLLEGE OF LAW
ALICIA JACKSON, FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW
DESHUN HARRIS, THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS-CECIL C. HUMPHREYS
SCHOOL OF LAW
[Abstract]
The demographics of law schools are changing and women make up the
majority of law students. Yet, the demographics of many law faculties do not
reflect these changing demographics with more men occupying faculty seats.
In legal education, women predominately occupy skills positions, including
legal writing, clinic, academic success, bar preparation, or library. According
to a 2010 Association of American Law Schools survey, the percentage of
female lecturers and instructors is so high that those positions are stereotypi-
cally female.
The term coined for positions typically held by women is pink ghetto.
According to the Department of Labor, pink-collar-worker describes jobs
and career areas historically considered women's work, and included on
the list is teaching. However, in legal education, tenured and higher-ranked
positions are held primarily by men, while women often enter legal educa-
tion through non-tenured and non-faculty skills-based teaching pipelines. In
a number of these positions, women experience challenges like poor pay,
heavy workloads, and lower status such as by contract, nontenure, or at will.
While many may view this as a challenge, looking at these positions
solely as a pink ghetto diminishes the many contributions women have
made to legal education through the skills faculty pipelines. Conversely, we
miss the opportunity to examine how legal education has changed and how
women have accepted the challenge of being on the front line of educating
this new generation of learners while enthusiastically adopting the American
Bar Association's new standards for assessment and student learning. There
is an opportunity for women to excel in these positions if we provide them
with allies who champion for equal status and provide the requisite support.
This article focuses on the changing gender demographics of legal ed-
ucation, legal education pipelines, and the role and status of women in higher
education with an emphasis on legal education. The final section applies](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/udetmr96&div=28&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Pink Ghetto Pipeline: Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Legal Education
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