In honor of Women’s History Month, the O’Neill School is using our March blogs as a platform to highlight the women of O’Neill, including students, faculty, and alumni, and their work to make a difference in our communities.
By Sheila Kennedy, O’Neill Professor Emeritus of Law and Public Policy (retired)
The path that led me to the Paul O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs was also the path of progress for women in the workforce. That progress owes a great deal to the women who came before me and imposes an obligation to be there for those who follow.
I went to law school in 1971. There were fewer than 10 women in my class of more than 190 students—and I only knew three women lawyers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had been established only six years before, in 1965, and I think it’s fair to say that social attitudes about women in the profession remained fairly negative. I was the first woman hired by the law firm I joined upon graduation, and a number of male lawyers made it fairly clear they considered a female lawyer distinctly unfeminine, if not deranged.