Women made up 57.4 percent of the 2021 incoming law school class according to LSAC data. But a new study confirms that they take up much less than half of the speaking time in required first-year lectures. Building on the “Speak Up” studies performed at elite law schools in the early 2000s on women’s participation in law courses, three professors at the University of Virgina— Molly Bishop Shadel, Sophie Trawalter, and J.H. Verkerke—designed three studies to better understand the dynamics at play. They found that while women do participate less than men, given certain conditions, there are structural changes that law professors can implement to promote more balanced classroom discourse.
The first study was designed to understand the participation disparities between men and women. Using recordings of required first-year courses, Shadel found that the classroom discourse was disproportionately driven by men—62 percent of classroom utterances were attributed to men, while just 38 percent were from women. Men also spoke longer on average (302 seconds) than did women (194 seconds). Notably, the quality of the responses between genders was not significantly different, nor was the confidence displayed when providing the response (measured via use of verbal fillers and “qualified utterances” in the response). Shadel, describing the findings, said, “We saw that when answering cold calls, women spoke just as much as men, and they also spoke just as well and their answers were equally on point. The gender gap appeared when students were allowed to volunteer whether or not to participate.” Additionally, the gender gap occurred in lecture classes and disappeared entirely in classes with 30 or fewer students.
The second study asked students to self-report class participation at four points in time: at orientation, after the first semester, before the second year, and just prior to graduation. Women generally self-reported speaking less in class, however, the responses varied over time. Women reported speaking less in class after their first semester and before their second year. However, at orientation, women expected that they would speak as much as men, and nearer to graduation, they reported speaking as much as men. A disparity between the men and women occurred in the reasons they reported for not speaking. While men were more likely to say they didn’t speak due to a lack of interest in the subject-matter, women reported concerns about the size of the class, classmates’ judgment, or the professor’s personality and perceived supportiveness. Finally, women were also found to be significantly less positive about the Socratic Method than were men across all time periods. And, those students who expressed a greater dislike of the Socratic Method were also less likely to speak in class.
The third and final study explored the perceived social backlash against class participation. The study authors surveyed the Class of 2021, who were in their third year and were taking courses in-person and online. Survey responses found that men and women reported speaking in similar amounts, and that both gender groups reported a fear of “backlash” after participating. Women reported feeling more backlash from women, and men from men; however, the highest-rated levels of backlash were by women and from women.
Based upon the study findings, the authors provided recommendations for how law schools and professors might update the classroom environment to promote women’s participation:
Reduce the number of large lecture courses and increase the number of smaller class (30 or fewer students) offerings
Rather than relying solely on volunteers, implement a systematic plan for calling on students to speak in class to drive a more diverse range of participation
Reduce reliance on the Socratic method or update the method from cold-calling to letting students know when they will be expected to participate
Ensure that there is a clear expectation for all students to participate in classroom discourse to reduce the backlash against students who do
Shadel noted her firm belief that every student can learn to articulate their thoughts confidently and well in a classroom setting if given the opportunity. “You need to be able to take a deep breath and just do it,” she said. “If we are making it hard for students to take that deep breath because we’re putting them in a group of 90 people and putting them on the spot only one time, then I don’t think we’re serving them well.”