The Gender Gap in Student Enrollments at American Law Schools

The American Bar Association has compiled and published enrollment and degree completion data for its member law schools. Statistics show that in juris doctorate degree programs, women are a majority of students at 125 of the 202 American law schools. Four law schools had an equal number of men and women students and the remainder had more men than women students.

At some law schools, women had a large lead over men in enrollments. For example, at the law school at American University in Washington, D.C., there were 251 women enrolled compared to just 137 men. There, women were 65 percent of the total enrollment. There were 206 women enrolled at the law school at the University of California, Berkeley compared to just 120 men.

There were several law schools where men still had a major enrollment edge. For example at the law school at Texas Tech University, there were 82 men enrolled compared to just 46 women.

At the Georgetown University Law Center, the nation’s largest law school, women made up 54 percent of the student body.

Women were a majority of the enrollment at three Ivy League law schools: Columbia, Cornell, and Yale. Men were a majority of students at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Among other law schools rated as the best by U.S. News & World Report, women made up a majority of students only at New York University. Men were a majority of the student body at the law schools at Duke University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Virginia.