Distance Travelled

I don't know much about her, but this article about Judge Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit reinforces my sense that she would make an excellent Supreme Court judge – an unapologetic liberal voice on an ideological, far-right Court. 

The article reminds just how recently women were all but excluded from the legal academy: 

When [Wood]... began teaching at the University of Chicago law school in 1981, she was the only woman on the faculty, and she was eight months pregnant. She had three children in five years. Prof. Lea Brilmayer of Yale Law School, who had preceded her as the only woman at Chicago, said the school in those days was “distinctly inhospitable” to women on the faculty.

Lea Brilmayer was my first year contracts professor. Brilliant, hilarious, and more than a little odd. Like Wood, when she started teaching at Chicago, she was the only woman on the faculty. The only woman on the faculty. While there's still a long way to go, it's worth pausing for a moment to appreciate just how recently legal academia was an almost exclusively male province.