In my last post I pointed out that law school applicants from top universities around the country have continued to plunge.

In the comments, a reader asked:

A related question: Are males abandoning law school? As a general rule, occupations which attract large percentages of females tend to pay less. How do present law school abandonment trends play into gender-related compensation trends?

To which I responded I didn’t know, but thought it was a good question and I would find out. So over the weekend, I went back into the ABA’s 509 reports and started crunching numbers.

The result?

Law Schools Turn Pink

Law Schools Turn Pink statistics women 2017 graph

Click for huge version.

Male Student Change From 2011 to 2015 Female Student Change from 2011 to 2015
-25.59% -17.31%

 

  • Enrolled law students are down across the board, but less so for women.
  • In 2011, 38 law schools had more women students enrolled than men.
  • In 2015, 85 law schools have more women students enrolled than men.

If you look at the year-to-year percentage changes, something because abundantly clear.

Male Student Change From 2011 to 2012

Female Student Change From 2011 to 2012

-5%

-4%

Male Student Change From 2012 to 2013

Female Student Change From 2012 to 2013

-9%

-6%

Male Student Change From 2013 to 2014

Female Student Change From 2013 to 2014

-9%

-5%

Male Student Change From 2014 to 2015

Female Student Change From 2014 to 2015

-5%

-3%

Male Student Change From 2015 to 2016

Female Student Change From 2015 to 2016

?

?

If we see the same percentage declines from 2015 to 2016, we’ll get:

  • Men: -5% of 57,520 students will result in 54,644 total male law students in 2016.
  • Women: -3% of 56,197 students will result in 54,512 total female law students in 2016.

Extrapolate that out one more year, and women will outnumber men in law schools for the first time ever. 

alabama-wow-girl Law Schools Turn Pink

I don’t what that means, but it feels like a sea change.  It might not work out this way of course, there could be a sudden surge of men enrolling in law schools this next year, but I doubt it.

The practice of law has long been a male dominated profession. But on the input side, things are shifting towards the fairer sex.

Male or female, if you’re headed to law school, be prepared.

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