196 Difference
Summary
This study’s findings on gender tend to support the picture that has emerged from
other research on classroom dynamics, albeit with a few interesting wrinkles sug-
gesting some directions for further study. Overall, women students participated at
lower rates than men, a difference that was still worse when we examined only
volunteered turns. This fits with previous observational studies of law schools and
with many (although not all) of the self-report studies as well. Survey studies such
as those conducted at Minnesota and New Mexico did not find the kinds of attitu-
dinal and reported differences between men and women that had been found in
much other research. The authors of one of these studies suggested that particular
aspects of the law school atmosphere—notably, positive attitudes regarding diver-
sity—might be affecting the result. I have throughout this discussion echoed this
focus on context, urging that we examine our results in terms of particular class-
room and school contexts.
One such particular context is provided by the status of the school. The three
more comprehensive observational studies performed in elite law schools to date
(Yale, University of Chicago, Harvard) have not found the kind of positive influ-
ence of women professors on women students’ participation that has been docu-
mented in some other educational settings. In the one class taught by a female
professor at an elite/prestige school in this study, women also participated less than
did men. On the otherhand, in two nonelite law school classes taught by female
professors in this study, women participated at nearly equal or slightly higher
levels than did men. It is obviously cause for concern if something about the at-
mosphere or classroom dynamics in our nation’s elite and prestige law schools
undercuts women law professors as role models or their support for their women
students. Of course, we cannot draw any generalized conclusions from this set of
case studies, but these findings together certainly suggest that the interaction of
school status and gender might bear further examination. This is also particularly
interesting in light of the contrary picture that emerged from this study regarding
race: two classes taught by professors of color (one of whom was also the woman
discussed in this paragraph) at elite schools were characterized by high participa-
tion rates on the part of students of color, a result apparently unaffected by status
of school.^96
Another interesting aspect of context is that created by classroom discourse
style. Previous studies had indicated a possible negative effect of Socratic teaching
on women’s participation, as well as of voluntary participation (women being less
likely to volunteer or to raise their hands quickly). Again, we found mixed sup-
port for this picture, with some new complexities to consider as well. On the one
hand, women’s overall participation rates in the more elite and more highly Socratic
classrooms of this study were lower than men’s. On the other hand, if the class-
room was more heavily Socratic, women participated at higher levels in longer,
Socratic exchanges than in shorter, volunteered colloquies. So we have another
interestingly complex result: the most Socratic classrooms are biased overall in favor
of male participation, but in those classrooms women participate more in the ex-
tended Socratic exchanges. Our findings on volunteered versus called-on turns