In this workshop presentation, I will address 5 points:

(1) whether the law school curriculum can be disengendered;

(2) whether this question can or should be addressed in isolation of other characteristics, e.g., class, race, ethnicity, or culture;

(3) whether the law school curriculum sufficiently addresses diversity issues related to engendered experience;

(4) what can be done about the dearth of law school curricular material regarding multidimensional engendered experiences; and

(5) using the example of criminal law and my research in this area, illustrating how the scholarly and pedagogical material can be created on particular communities of women.

I. Whether the Law School Curriculum can be Disengendered?

The question asked in this workshop title can be interpreted in two ways: (1) The law school curriculum currently is "disengendered" and therefore, it is necessary to explore whether introducing gendered experience and analysis may be necessary and worthwhile; or (2) the law school curriculum currently is not "disengendered" and therefore, it is necessary to explore whether continued express attention to gendered experience and analysis is necessary and worthwhile.

This presentation addresses the second interpretation - that is, whether explicit or implicit, the law and law school curriculum are infused with gender-based analysis and dynamics, and it is important to explore these dimensions in legal education.

Criminal law, the field in which I teach and write, provides one of the clearest examples of the need for gender-based analysis in the law school curriculum. Until fairly recently, however, even this area of study was taught as though gender-dynamics were non-existent or irrelevant. In some instances, for example, offenses for which gender clearly was implicated, such as domestic violence and rape, were presented in gender-neutral terms or were not included at all in the criminal law courses.

II. Whether the Inquiry into the Engendered Law School Curriculum Can or Should Focus Exclusively on Gender?

While adopting the premise that the law school curriculum indeed is engendered, a further concern is whether this recognition alone fully reflects the salient issues of diversity within women's and men's gendered experiences. In this regard, class, race, ethnicity, culture, sexuality and other characteristics must be integral to the analysis and understanding of gendered experiences in the law school curriculum.

Racial, ethnic, and gender studies programs in universities and professional schools began to proliferate in the 1960s and 1970s. Law schools followed this trend, as well, and introduced courses on "women and the law" and "race and the law," in addition to entire fields of critical legal studies. However within the respective concentrations of such programs or methodologies, women of color tended to be omitted or marginalized. Hence, within women studies programs/courses, women of color rarely were expressly addressed, and similarly within racial and ethnic studies programs/courses, men were the primary focus of study.

It is apparent that gender is a substantial basis for interrogating the development, interpretation, and implementation of legal doctrine. It is equally apparent that the gender experience differs across various axes of race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and other dimensions. Therefore, it is imperative that gender analysis in the law school curriculum also include recognition of salient interconnections and distinctions between the experiences of women of color, white women, and men of all backgrounds.

III. Whether the Law School Curriculum Sufficiently Addresses Diversity Issues Related to Engendered Experience?

While there is greater acknowledgement of the multidimensionality of the gendered experience, the degree to which this increased awareness has been incorporated into the law school curriculum, particularly beyond specialized courses, remains questionable. A review of course books on women or gender and the law, reveals increasing materials on the ways in which law recognizes or influences the respective experiences of women of color. However, through a growing body of empirical and anecdotal data in this regard, there is sufficient reason to believe that the same cannot be said of the broader law school curriculum.

To the extent that gendered and diverse gendered issues and analyses are not included throughout the law school curriculum - in large classes, seminars, and clinical courses in first year and upper divisions - students are being poorly prepared to understand and apply critical analytical and practical dimensions of the law.

IV. What Can Be Done about the Dearth of Law School Curricular Material Regarding Multidimensional Engendered Experiences?

In the current debate, the "diversity rationale" is one of the principal arguments in favor of affirmative action in higher education. It is ironic, therefore, that propounding diversity in the population in educational institutions is not necessarily perceived as entailing an imperative for research, pedagogical methods, and materials on issues pertaining to diverse populations.

Research in areas related to diverse populations must be actively pursued and valued for the intrinsic intellectual importance of the study and for the informed perspectives that will enhance legal understanding and effective lawyering to diverse populations of clients.

In order to meet these imperatives, research agendas and teaching methods throughout the law school curriculum must provide intellectual attention on the specific and interlocking dynamics of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and other characteristics within law and legal education. Necessarily, fulfilling these obligations would include the production of more scholarly and pedagogical information about the unique experiences of women of color.

V. Filling the Void: Legal Scholarship on African American Women in the Criminal Justice System

External perceptions and stereotypes of African American, Latina, Asian American, and Native American women are very specific and affect their experiences in law and society in very specific ways. These perceptions and stereotypes often influence the disparate manner in which physical and sexualized abuse against women is regarded. Thus, while there has been greater recognition of gender analysis in criminal law study, further understanding of the role of race and ethnicity in defining and applying legal doctrine with respect to women also is required.

For example, despite being the largest number of women in prison, scant research addresses the interactions between criminal law and African American women's lives. My study of African American women in prison explores the particular race-gender determinants of criminal law doctrine and African American women's experiences of these determinants in the criminal justice and correctional systems. In an interdisciplinary approach that includes legal analysis, narrative, and photography, the law is revealed as non-neutral as exemplified by the study of African American women's lives.

The discussion of Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison (NYU Press 2003) provides an example of the ways in which we can create the necessary scholarship and pedagogical materials to rectify the dearth of information about women of color in the law school curriculum.