Professor Deo Releases Landmark Book on Legal Education
February 12, 2019
Meera E Deo has released her book, Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia. Published this month by Stanford University Press, the book details intersectional raceXgender challenges facing women of color faculty. Professor Deo conducted the first national empirical study of law faculty to investigate the experiences of women and men law faculty of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in various academic positions.
Unequal Profession reveals sobering findings of ongoing racial discrimination and gender inequity. Classroom confrontations and biases in course evaluations have devastating effects on tenure and promotion. Colleagues who mansplain, hepeat, and silence marginalized faculty contribute to the higher rate of attrition for female professors of color. The data reveal interesting parallels between hiring and leadership for women of color faculty, as many do not pursue faculty or administrative positions primarily because they are told (directly or indirectly) that they do not belong. Professor Deo also outlines individual strategies for success that worked for many study participants and can be adapted for others. Necessary structural solutions—from thinking “outside the box” to purposefully working against implicit bias—are also emphasized in the book.
Meera E Deo, JD, PhD, is Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Visiting Professor at UC Davis School of Law, and Director of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) based at Indiana University. Unequal Profession is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple iBooks. Readers can find more information and also purchase the book from the Stanford University Press website at: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25601