New data shows that female enrollment in law schools and employment after law school is rising but some believe there is still room for more representation in the law field.
Female enrollment has increased while male enrollment has declined, according to AccessLex Institute’s latest Legal Education Data Deck.
“Prior to 2000, male and female J.D. enrollment primarily moved inversely, with male enrollment falling as female enrollment increased. After 2000 they moved in tandem until female enrollment surpassed male enrollment for the first time in 2017,” stated the deck.
This is the result of a larger trend of declining male enrollment in higher education, said Tiffane Cochran, Vice President of Research at AccessLex. Female college attainment has been outpacing male college attainment for some time now.
According to a recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse, 59.5% of college students enrolled in 2020-2021 were women and 40.5% were men.
“With the gender balance shifting among college graduates, this necessarily affects the gender balance we observe in law schools,” Cochran said. “However, as the Data Deck also shows, admission rates are higher among male law school applicants than female applicants.”
She points out that others have noted that women are not as represented at higher-ranked law schools.
Female employment in the law field has also increased but the pay hasn’t followed. New employment findings from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) shows that from the class of 2021, women had the highest employment rate (92.4%), but men had a higher median salary ($80,000) than both women ($75,000) and gender non-binary graduates ($66,726).
Even with enrollment and employment numbers increasing, many feel that there is still room for improving female representation in the law community.
A survey conducted by Leopard Solutions shows that the main reason women are leaving may have to do with the work culture and feeling underrepresented. Of the surveyed women, 90% reported their workplace culture as the main reason for quitting. The data also shared that 82% blamed a lack of flexibility and 74% quit due to a lack of career trajectory.
Kathleen Martinez, an immigration attorney, left her law firm to start her own “all-pink law firm” based in Texas. She created a TikTok that went viral this month when she shared how she left her law firm for not being taken seriously for dressing in feminine colors.
In the video, she is seen in different pictures wearing various all-black work outfits with the caption, “Working for male attorneys who told me to dress conservatively so I could be taken seriously.”
It then shows Martinez and three of her colleagues dressed in bright pink suits, with a new caption, “I started my own firm with a pink brand and took/stole their clients in the process.”
Martinez has said on her platforms that she chose pink to represent her new legal practice because it embodies femininity and she hopes to have women be more represented in the industry.
“We need to expand the idea of law practice and what it means to be taken seriously,” Martinez said. “My firm has broadened the legal culture in that we wear whatever we want. More firms should take note.”
“If your employer doesn’t make you feel included or empowered, leave,” she continued. “There is a place for you.”
