Women law journals in the new millennium: how far have they evolved? And are they still necessary?

• Author: Vaughns, Katherine L.
• Position: Why a Feminist Law Journal?

It is no secret that women are entering law school and the legal academy in significant numbers in the new millennium. And their numbers have been on the rise since the early 1970s. For those of us entering law school around that time, inspired by the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, we firmly believed that the legal profession would become, in effect, more caring--for want of a better expression--because women were entering the profession in greater numbers. But alas, we could not have been more naive. Male orientation of the law and male domination of the legal profession has relentlessly persisted into the twenty-first century.

On a more sanguine note, emerging voices have found expression in the proliferation of specialty journals being published in the latter part of the twentieth century. These journals are in sharp contrast to general or "flagship" journals which have traditionally been viewed as male oriented and, more particularly, white male oriented. In fact, some have always perceived the law in general to be white and male, not gender- or race-neutral as others in the profession, the academy, and even the judiciary would have us believe.

Ten years ago, the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession sponsored an extraordinary program entitled "Is the Law Male?" as part of the ABA's annual meeting in New York City in 1993. The keynote speaker was the Honorable Judith S. Kaye, who only months earlier had been appointed Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. I recall Chief Judge Kaye being the main inspiration for such a program. As an appellate jurist, she told the audience, she had had the opportunity to follow the law reviews closely and had monitored, in her words, "the marvelous development of feminist legal theory." (1)

A program goal and part of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession's mission is to build bridges "among the too-often-discrete worlds of the academics, the judiciary, and the practicing Bar," (2) and to promote the diversity of ideas and insight expressed in specialty journals such as those devoted to women's stories and women's experiences. (3) This is especially noteworthy in light of the fact that although legal scholars cite specialty journals heavily, judges do not. (4) Not surprisingly, the program served to underscore the fact that the law is still male. (5)

Feminist law journals thus arose in response to the perception that the law is male and focused on more gender-oriented themes impacting women specifically, first addressing areas of the law normally relating to women, such as family law and employment law. (6) More recently, however, articles written in these journals have broadened their focus to include gender-oriented themes relative to more traditional subjects such as taxation (7) and corporate law, (8) and even influencing "flagship" journals in publishing so-called non-traditional scholarship. (9) Also, because of the increasing numbers of women entering law schools, a growing need for journal writing relating to their particular interests found a voice in these journals as well. (10) Much like other non-traditional jurisprudence that was developing around the same time, feminist law journals were established at various law schools around the country to give voice to the increasing diversity reflected in law school student populations. (11)

As Professor Christine A. Littleton wrote in her introduction for the premiere edition of the women's journal established at the University of California...