Author's School

School of Law

Author's Department

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Additional Affiliations

William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law; Vice Provost of the University; Faculty with the Feminist Critical Analysis Seminar

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Originally Published In

Chang, Robert S. and Davis, Adrienne D., Making Up is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom. Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2010; Washington U. School of Law Working Paper No. 09-05-04; Seattle University School of Law Research Paper No. 10-10. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1408235

Abstract

This exchange of letters picks up where Professors Adrienne Davis and Robert Chang left off in an earlier exchange that examined who speaks, who is allowed to speak, and what is remembered. Here, Professors Davis and Chang explore the dynamics of race, gender, and sexual orientation in the law school classroom. They compare the experiences of African American women and Asian American men in trying to perform as law professors, considering how makeup and other gender tools simultaneously assist and hinder such performances. Their exchange examines the possibility of bias that complicates the use of student evaluations in assessing teaching effectiveness. It hypothesizes that the mechanism by which this bias manifests itself is a variant of stereotype threat, one that they call projected stereotype threat, where stereotypes of incompetence or accent are projected onto the bodies of teachers marked by difference. They examine how institutions respond or, as is more typically the case, fail to respond to these problems. They conclude with some suggestions for change, asserting that if institutions want to pay more than lip service to the goal of diversity, the success and employment conditions of women and minorities will improve only through the hiring of more women and minorities and by addressing directly the issue of bias to educate students about bias and its discriminatory effects on instructors whose bodies are marked by perceived differences and how such bias interferes with their learning.

Comments

Chang, Robert S. and Davis, Adrienne D., Making Up is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom. Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2010; Washington U. School of Law Working Paper No. 09-05-04; Seattle University School of Law Research Paper No. 10-10. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1408235

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