Blog # 24

I have a friend named Brittany who is in her first year of law school and she informed me there are definitely gender expectations and stereotypes. She first noticed them during the application process. When she was filling out the applications she noticed that there were a higher number of men applications than women at a majority of the schools she was applying to. Then when she went to do her interviews for admissions she noticed how outnumbered she was. After attending her first week she informed me that there are gender expectations. She said women had a certain standard of how they needed to appear every day. A new friend of hers who had been in her second year informed her of these standards. The girl told her it was very important for Brittany to dress for success everyday if she was going to make it and be noticed as a good student. Brittany says that it is very different from undergrad because she can’t just roll out of bed anymore to go to classes. She how has to make sure her outfits are neat along with the rest of her appearance. She joked and said it was harder getting ready for class than it was getting ready to go to work. She also stated she struggles with some professors because her gender and ethnicity. She feels that some professors feel like she does not belong there and seem to make things a little more difficult for her than her male counterparts. However, she does have some professors who are willing to help her more because they are supportive that she has chosen to go into the legal field which is predominately a male field. I was a little shocked that these stereotypes or expectations for law school students exist. I know based on our class material there are expectations for lawyers and politicians but I did not realize that they started within law school.