Law School Dean Urges Students To Stop Making 'Wildly Inappropriate' Sexist Comments About Female Professor

Why aren’t more law school deans willing to protect the women of this profession?

We’ve said this before in the past, but it apparently bears repeating — constantly.

Women in the legal profession are treated much differently than their male colleagues, right down to their fashion choices, which continue to be denigrated and belittled. As we noted in June 2014, “[a]t least every other month, women attorneys get lectured by bar associations, Biglaw firms, law schools, and even federal judges on the way that they ought to dress themselves, from head to toe.”

It now seems that even law students have taken up the torch of admonishing women lawyers for their appearance. If you recall, when you were in law school, you received student evaluation forms at the end of each semester to tell the administration exactly what you thought about your law professors. From harsh critiques to faint praise to slavish adulation, this was the time to lay it all out. Unfortunately, students from at least one law school have used this as an opportunity to take tasteless and unseemly pot-shots at their female professors’ sartorial stylings.

Much to our amazement, a law school dean — a male one — decided to take a stand against the disgustingly sexist commentary being spewed by students in their course evaluations. Which law school is home to students so foul that their misogynistic musings warranted a school-wide email, and which legal educator finally spoke up in favor of changing the status quo?

The school in question is Rutgers Law – Camden, and Vice Dean Adam F. Scales is the man who took his students to task for their chauvinist commentary. He begins his email by mentioning that throughout his years of teaching, his look ranged from “Impoverished Graduate Student” to “British Diplomat,” but noted that no one would ever have known that just by reading his student evaluations for one reason, and one reason only — he’s a man. Scales then gallantly continues his onslaught against sexism:

It has come to my attention that a student submitted an evaluation that explored, in some detail, the fashion stylings of one of your professors. It will surprise no one possessing the slightest familiarity with student evaluations that this professor is a woman. Women are frequently targets of evaluative commentary that, in addition to being wildly inappropriate and adolescent, is almost never directed at men. Believe me, I am about the last person on this faculty for whom the “sexism” label falls readily to hand, but after a lifetime of hearing these stories, I know it when I see it. Anyone who doubts this would find it instructive to stop by and ask any one of our female professors about this and similar dynamics.

Student evaluations are an important tool. They are also a public one, and become part of the permanent record of every faculty member. (Not the bit of fashion advice at issue here, which I struck from the evaluation system in a nanosecond.)

Yes, nearly all women in the legal profession, including law school professors, have found themselves the victims of “wildly inappropriate and adolescent” commentary about their style of dress. And yet, in recent memory, Vice Dean Scales is the only member of legal academia to defend his female colleagues from these unwarranted attacks. Why aren’t more law school deans speaking out against sexism in the legal profession? If you’re a dean, the next time you’re considering prattling on about the value of a law degree, perhaps you ought to dedicate some time to figuring out how to improve the state of this profession for women, who represent nearly half of all law school graduates, and who make up about 34 percent of all practicing lawyers.

Sponsored

How are students reacting to the vice dean’s message? Here’s one tipster’s take:

Amidst all the sexist bullshit regarding how women attorneys, students, and professionals in general dress, Rutgers is keeping it classy. I love this school, and I’m very proud of it right now.

Damn straight. Scales continues to keep it classy in the conclusion of his email, where he writes: “If you have any doubts that posterity will somehow muddle through without the benefit of your fashion advice, allow me to dispel them once and for all.”

Why aren’t more law school deans willing to protect the women of this profession like Rutgers Law’s Adam Scales? Law students certainly pay enough tuition money to demand that their deans at least attempt to put them on the same footing as their male colleagues. The fact that more law deans haven’t done so is quite damning.

(If you’re interested, flip to the next page to see Vice Dean Adam F. Scales of Rutgers Law – Camden’s strong condemnation of sexism in law schools.)

Sponsored