Product Description
Each year, 40,000 women apply to law school. Here is the definitive resource to arm them with what they need to know before, during, and after their legal education.
Which law schools help their students succeed? What makes someone a successful law student? What determines a law school graduate’s future success? A Woman’s Guide to Law School provides the answers, while addressing, specifically, the needs and interests of the female student.
Linda… More >>
This book explains how to choose a law school if you are a feminist who wants to go where no one will challenge your views. Hirshman seems to believe that feminist principles will crumble if exposed to any criticism, so she encourages people to choose schools that have lots of feminists, do not have any conservatives (and preferably not many men), and that will never question feminist beliefs. The problem is, lots of people say that the purpose of law school is to have your ideas challenged, and to face and overcome those challenges. Will Hirshman’s approach train feminsists who like law school, but aren’t very good lawyers?
Rating: 2 / 5
I only got through the first few chapters of the book before I was so OFFENDED I had to stop. The author clearly believes she is speaking to an immature and unintelligent audience. This is what cinched it for me:”At lower status law schools, the students of both genders are often the first generation of their families to get a higher education, and even a modest middle-class life seems good to them” (14). Why beat up your readers, Hirshman? I happen to be a first generation law student who is very displeased with the attitude of the book. I do not reccomend this for anyone.
Rating: 1 / 5
I purchased this book before I started law school as a primer to help give me an idea of what to expect. I found the book to be honest and helpful as an incoming student. I think the book would have been more helpful if I hadn’t chosen a school already, but the advice in the book is good for any school. I can tell you law school is stressful and time consuming. I found a lot of my female friends shocked by the competitive environment which is something this book can help you prepare for. Overall, it was very helpful and insightful.
Rating: 5 / 5
If I had a child ( daughter OR SON ) who was thinking of going to Law School I would insist that they not only read this wonderful book, but convince me that they really understood what it has to say. Law school is a serious and costly undertaking to the family and/or freight-payer as well as to the student, male or female. Professor Hirshman thoroughly and in an amusing manner lays out all one needs to know when contemplating this endeavor. Don’t leave home without it!
Rating: 5 / 5
This book offered me the insight and advice that I bought it for. Hirshman essentially breaks down the psychology behind a first year’s law school experience and how, as a woman, you can win at this. She doesn’t get too hung up on feminist garble (which I was afraid of) but instead makes you realize what to look for, what to take advantage of and how to empower yourself. I admit that I was a hard-sell on the “femscore” ratings for various law schools, but in the text she makes great points about how much that atmosphere of a law school can affect your success as a female student. I’ve even already began looking at the faculty makeup of my prospective law schools and how many women teach the first year courses.
I didn’t give this book 5 stars because the sometimes heavy attention she gives to those “femi” ratings and the reliance she places on questions to ask your law school. Just because they may have more men than women as tenured faculty does NOT mean that they are un-female friendly. Plus, I would hate for any woman to use her ratings SOLELY to determine where to go to school. Perhaps if more women weren’t scared away from going to male dominant schools…then there would be less male dominant schools. I guess I believe that if you get too carried away in this material, you become less proactive as a woman entering a male dominated feel. But if you approach the book another way, it will yield a lot of great and useful information when you are about to set out for law school. I’m not there yet, so still have to put Hirshman’s advice to the test!
Rating: 4 / 5