Skip to main content
Log in

Women Law Professors – Negotiating and Transcending Gender Identities at Work

  • Published:
Feminist Legal Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper reports a research project on womenlaw professors in the U.K. Despite theirsimilar social and educational backgrounds,successful women legal academics disclosemarked differences in their perceptions of theinfluence of gender on their work identities.Many emphasise the caring and pastoral rolesthey adopt, or are expected to adopt.Organisational cultures also emerge as asignificant factor in determining the genderexperiences of women law professors. The fewwith experience as head of school downplay thesignificance of gender while simultaneouslyacknowledging the influence of genderconstructions and expectations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Acker, S. and Feuerverger, G., “Doing Good and Feeling Bad: the Work of Women University Teachers”, Cambridge Journal of Education 26/3 (1996), 401–422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvesson, M. and Billing, Y., Understanding Gender and Organizations (London: Sage, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Association of University Teachers, Sex Discrimination in Universities (London: A.U.T., 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • AUT Woman 45 (1998).

  • Becher, T., Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bett, M., Independent Review of Higher Education Pay and Conditions (London: Stationery Office, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Blake, M. and La Valle, I., Who Applies for Research Funding? (London: Wellcome Trust, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bocon, L., “Beyond the Degree: Men andWomen at the Decision-Making Levels in British Higher Education”, Gender and Education 11 (1999), 5–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewis, J., “How Does it Feel? Women Managers, Embodiment and Changing Public-Sector Cultures”, in Transforming Managers: Gendering Change in the Public Sector, eds. S. Whitehead & R. Moodley (London: Taylor and Francis, 1999), 84–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A., Academic Women (Buckingham: S.R.H.E. and Open University Press, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Carle, S., “Gender in the Construction of the Lawyer's Persona”, Harvard Women's Law Journal 22 (1999), 238–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn, C., In the Way of Women: Men's Resistance to Sex Equality in Organisations (London: MacMillan, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • Collinson, D. and Hearn, J., eds., Men as Managers, Managers as Men (London: Sage, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on University Career Opportunity (C.U.C.O.), A Report on Universities Policies and Practices on Equal Opportunities in Employment (London: C.V.C.P., 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on University Career Opportunity, A Report on Policies on Equal Opportunities in Employment in Universities and Colleges in Higher Education (London: C.V.C.P., 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Conaghan, J., “Reassessing the Feminist Theoretical Project in Law”, Journal of Law and Society 27 (2000), 351–385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coser, R.L., “Where Have all the Women Gone? Like the Sediment of Good Wine, They Have Sunk to the Bottom”, in Access to Power: Cross-National Studies of Women and Elites eds. C.F. Epstein & R.J. Coser (Boston: George Allen and Unwin, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cownie, F., “Women Legal Academics – A New Research Agenda?” Journal of Law and Society 25 (1998), 102–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cree, V., “Surviving on the Inside: Reflections on Being a Woman and a Feminist in a Male Academic Institution”, Social Work Education 16 (1997), 37–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crompton, R., ed., Restructuring Gender Relations in Employment: the Decline of the Male Breadwinner (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crompton, R., “The Decline of the Male Breadwinner: Explanations and Interpretations”, in Restructuring Gender Relations in Employment: the Decline of the Male Breadwinner, ed. R. Crompton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • David, M. & Woodward, D., eds., Negotiating the Glass Ceiling: Careers of Senior Women in the Academic World (London: Falmer Press, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • Deech, R., “An Oxford History”, in Against the Tide; Career Paths of Women Leaders in American and British Higher Education, ed. K.D. Walton (Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1996), 81–92.

  • Deem, R., “State Policy and Ideology in the Education of Women 1944–1980”, British Journal of the Sociology of Education 2 (1981), 131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deem, R., “Power and Resistance in the Academy: the Case of Women Academic Managers”, in Transforming Managers: Gendering Change in the Public Sector, eds. S. Whitehead & R. Moodley (London: Taylor and Francis 1999), 66–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Equal Opportunities Commission, Women in Senior Management in Wales (Cardiff: E.O.C., 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Farish, M., McPake, J., Powney, J. & Weiner, G., eds., Equal Opportunities in Colleges and Universities – Towards Better Practices (Buckingham: S.R.H.E. and Open University Press, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • Farley, C. Haight, “Confronting Expectations: Women in the Legal Academy”, Yale Jnl of Law and Feminism 8 (1996), 333–358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gherardi, S., Gender, Symbolism and Organizational Cultures (London: Sage Publications, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  • Guinier, L. Fine, Balin J., Bartow A. & Stachel D.L., “Becoming Gentlemen: Women's Experiences at One Ivy League Law School”, University of Pennsylvania Law Review 143 (1994), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halsey, A., Decline of Donnish Dominion: The British Academic Professions in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hearn, J., “Men, Managers and Management: the Case of Higher Education”, in Transforming Managers: Engendering Change in the Public Sector, eds. S. Whitehead & R. Moodley (London: U.C.L. Press, 1999), 123–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higher Education Statistics Agency (H.E.S.A.), Students in Higher Education Institutions 1996/7 (Cheltenham: H.E.S.A., 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, K. & Nelson, R., “Gender Inequality in Law: Problems in Structure and Agency in Recent Studies of Gender in Anglo-American Legal Professions”, Law and Social Inquiry 23 (1998), 681–704.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinnman, G., Pressure Points: A Survey into the Causes and Consequences of Occupational Stress in U.K. Academics and Related Staff (London: A.U.T., 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkland, J., “The Missing Women Library Directors: Deprivation Versus Mentoring”, Coll Res Libr. 58 (1997), 376–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Illing, D., “Half of Uni staff 'are Distressed'”, The Australian 30 March 2001.

  • Lacey, N., Unspeakable Subjects (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lafferty, G. & Fleming, J., “The Restructuring of Academic Work in Australia; Power, Management and Gender”, Brit Journal of Sociology of Education 21 (2000), 257–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Feuvre, N., “Gender, Occupational Feminization, and Reflexivity: A Cross-National Perspective”, in Restructuring Gender Relations in Employment: the Decline of the Male Breadwinner, ed. R. Crompton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 150–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard P. & Malina D., “Caught Between Two Worlds: Mothers as Academics”, in Changing the Subject: Women in Higher Education, eds. S. Davies, C. Lubelska & J. Quinn (London: Taylor and Francis, 1994), 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levit, N., “Keeping Feminism in its Place: Sex Segregation and the Domestication of Female Academics”, University of Kansas Law Rev. 49 (2001), 775–807.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lie, S. Stiver & O'Leary, V., Storming the Tower: Women in the Academic World (London: Kogan Page, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  • McGlynn, C., The Woman Lawyer (London: Butterworths, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • McGlynn, C., “The Business of Equality in the Solicitors Profession”, Modern Law Review 63 (2000), 442–456.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGlynn, C., “Women, Representation and the Legal Academy”, Legal Studies 19 (1999), 68–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNabb, R. & Wass, V., “Male-female Salary Differentials in British Universities”, Oxford Economic Papers 49 (1997), 328–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mather, L., Chapter 1.03 in Women in the Legal Profession, eds. U. Schultz & G. Shaw (Hart Publishing, forthcoming).

  • Miller, J. & Glassner, B., “The 'Inside' and the 'Outside': Finding Realities in Interviews”, in Qualitative Research, ed. D. Silverman (London: Sage, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Morley, L. & Walsh, V., eds. Breaking Boundaries: Women in Higher Education (London: Taylor and Francis, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  • Morley, L., Organising Feminisms: The Micropolitics of the Academy (Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mossman, M.J., “Gender Issues in Teaching Methods: Reflections on Shifting the Paradigm”, Legal Education Review 6 (1998), 129–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naffine N., “In Praise of Legal Feminism: A View from Australia”, Legal Studies 21 (2001) issue 1.

  • Powney, J. & Weiner, G., Outside of the Norm: Equity and Management in Educational Institutions (London: South Bank University, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • Saramago, J., All the Names, translated by M. J. Costa (London: Harvill Press, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, L., Why Feminism? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, D., ed., Qualitative Research (London: Sage, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sommerlad, H. & Sanderson, P., Gender Choice and Commitment: Women Solicitors in England and Wales and the Struggle for Equal Status (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, R. & Davies, A., “Gender and New Public Management: Reconstituting Academic Subjectivities”, forthcoming.

  • Thornton, M., “Discord in the Academy: The Case of the Feminist Scholar”, Australian Feminist Law Journal 3 (1994), 53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, M., “Authority and Corporeality: The Conundrum forWomen in Law”, Feminist Legal Studies 6 (1998), 147–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, M. Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession (Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  • Trow, M., Managerialism and the Academic Profession: Quality and Control (London: Quality Support Centre, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wajcman, J., Managing Like a Man: Women and Men in Corporate Management (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, C., “Exceptional Women or Honorary Men?” in Current Legal Problems, Vol. 53, ed. M. Freeman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 181–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, C., “Working Out Women in Law Schools”, Legal Studies 21 (2001a), 116–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, C., “Ladies in Waiting: the Women Law Professors' Story”, Sydney Law Review 3 (2001b), 167–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, S. & Moodley, R., Transforming Managers: Gendering Change in the Public Sector (London: Taylor and Francis, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, S., “New Women, New Labour? Gendered Transformations in the House”, in Transforming Managers: Gendering Change in the Public Sector ed. S. Whitehead & R. Moodley (London: Taylor and Francis, 1999), 19–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward, D. & Ross, K., Managing Equal Opportunities in Higher Education: A Guide to Understanding and Action (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyn, J., Acker, S. & Richards, E., “Making a Difference: Women in Management in Australian and Canadian Universities”, Gender and Education 12 (2000), 435–447.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wells, C. Women Law Professors – Negotiating and Transcending Gender Identities at Work. Feminist Legal Studies 10, 1–38 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014996929238

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014996929238

Navigation