Overview
Still Unequal is a compelling and wide-ranging look at the profound sexism that still pervades the legal system after thirty years of feminist attempts to reform it. Not only is the prejudice of the past written into the law itself, our society continually reinforces it: Women students and faculty at some of the most prestigious law schools are still routinely discriminated against; as lawyers, they face oppressive odds against making partner at the big firms and, amazingly enough, encounter blatant bias in the courtroom from judges and opposing counsel. Both students and lawyers often face staggering levels of sexual harassment. Finally, women entering the system through divorce court or as survivors of abuse and rape frequently run up against attitudes we thought had died long ago. Still Unequal proves how far we must still go to rid our system of gender bias at all levels. To support her claim - documented with numerous studies and based on hundreds of interviews - Lorraine Dusky recounts in vivid detail stories involving women from all walks of life, from former professors at Yale to lawyers at white-shoe firms to women fighting for custody of their children to battered women. Dusky makes an overwhelming case for fundamental change in the legal system.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
According to Dusky (How to Eat Like a Thin Person), our legal system is still fundamentally prejudiced against women, despite some reforms achieved by feminists over the last 30 years. In this interesting but overly ambitious analysis, she examines the ways in which law schools contribute to an antiwoman atmosphere by allowing professors to ignore their female students in class, by continuing to use biased law texts and by refusing to grant tenure to women law professors. Drawing on both studies and anecdotal evidence, Dusky describes how the majority of law firms exclude women lawyers from power and often deny them partnershipsand how some foster an atmosphere of sexual harassment. Also included is the author's investigation of the way women's issues such as divorce, rape and domestic violence are treated in the courts. Unfortunately, Dusky doesn't offer a comprehensive treatment of all these subjects. (Nov.)Library Journal
Dusky examines American legal education, legal practice, and the law and its application and finds all three seriously wanting in the treatment of women. Prompted by a news item about injustices suffered by a divorced mother, Dusky sought out additional examples of sexism and draws sweeping conclusions about the U.S. legal system. While her background as a journalist brings a refreshing perspective, her generalizations and use of extreme situations as representative of the whole substantially weaken her argument. A broader outlook and recognition of the vast differences between the states and of the changes over time could have made her book a valuable and more evenhanded analysis. In addition, this work suffers from what attorneys call "over breadth"; that is, it tries to cover too much. Although Dusky's style will appeal to general readers, her prejudices and occasional inaccuracies make this a marginal purchase.-Suzanne Pierce Dyer, Alameda Cty. Law Lib., Oakland, Cal.Kirkus Reviews
An extensively researched indictment of the sexism that still pervades our legal system.Journalist Dusky (author of The Best Companies for Women) looks at the discrimination women on all sides of the law face—whether they are law students, partners or associates in top law firms, judges, mothers and ex-wives in family court, or survivors of rape and domestic abuse. Her portrayal of life for women in law school is drawn from a very small sample (about 70 women from 28 schools). But their shocking evidence, though largely anecdotal, is buttressed by other studies cited by the author—demeaning references to women in textbooks and constant devaluation of feminist ideas in the classroom, arrogant male professors who ignore female students—or fondle them without consent. Sexual harassment at law firms is even worse, Dusky shows. All of this reinforces the far more serious problems women have with the legal system: unfair custody, criminal, and marital laws—and interpretations of law. Dusky's tone is irritating at times; she condescends to the reader with rhetorical setups like "You might think . . . you would be wrong," and she peppers her prose with overly obvious or sweeping statements like, "Men find ways to keep women down." Sometimes, despite her sobering subject, she is funny; illustrating the silly and random ways that gender can pop up in legal codes, she points to an old Kentucky statute mandating that "no female shall appear in a bathing suit on a highway unless she is escorted by at least two officers or armed with a club."
Though her prose style occasionally grates, Dusky makes a persuasive and compelling case for change. This book should be required reading for all first-year law school students—and for any woman contemplating a legal career.