Innovative teaching methods to mainstream gender equality in legal education

Abstract

In many countries, data show that women are slowly overtaking men in law schools. Nevertheless, accounts from American law schools often report that women find law school a hostile atmosphere. Moreover, women remain significantly underrepresented in positions of leadership and power in all areas of the profession. Legal education has followed different paths in different countries to cope with this reality. Thus, while law schools in the United States have developed specific programmes to transform legal education by opening up spaces for feminist legal research and have created research centres specifically dedicated to women's and gender studies, this seems far from possible in Europe, where law schools maintain a very traditional curriculum. This article aims to investigate the differences between legal education in the United States and Europe, shedding light on the various initiatives undertaken to incorporate gender awareness into legal education. The ultimate goal will be to examine innovative methods of teaching law to achieve the integration of gender equality into legal education.