Deborah L. Rhode : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
In this oral history for the Stanford Faculty and Stanford Pioneering Women oral history projects, law professor Deborah Rhode reminisces about her upbringing in suburban Chicago, her undergraduate and legal education at Yale, and her career in academia in the fields of legal ethics, leadership, and gender, law and public policy.
Arriving at Stanford in 1979, Rhode was the second woman on the faculty of the Stanford Law School. She reflects on her own dawning awareness of the impact of gender socialization and inequity, attempts to redress both salary and non-salary gender discrepancies at Stanford, and the need for support networks and leadership training for women. Other topics include clerking for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Murray Gurfein of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; working with the House Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment proceedings; the history of the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research; and Stanford’s Faculty Women’s Forum and Faculty Women’s Caucus.- Summary
- Growing up in suburbs of Chicago • Parents; family expectations and attitudes about gender • Importance of economic independence • Dawning awareness of her own privilege in the midst of poverty, racism, and anti-Semitism • Growing interest in social justice issues • New Trier High School • Tennis in high school and on Yale’s women’s team • Undergraduate education at Yale soon after it went coed • Story of sexual harassment by a male professor • First female president of the debate association • Transformative moment reading Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex • Agitating for courses about women in Yale’s curriculum • Writing undergraduate thesis on battle for the Equal Rights Amendment and Phyllis Schlafly • Experiences concerning Mory’s, Yale’s faculty and alumni club, which refused to allow women to join or eat in the downstairs dining room • Gender discrimination while applying for clerkships and jobs • Decision to attend law school to effect change • Yale Law School • Change over time in law school curriculum at Yale and Stanford • Clerkship with Judge Murray Gurfein of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit • Clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall • Interview and clerkship with Justice Marshall (continued) • Photographing Justice Marshall • Summer working in private practice in Washington, DC, solidifies her interest in public interest work • Working on empirical research project on unauthorized practice of law and pro se divorce affirms her interest in academia • Direct service legal work and the need for emotional distance • Recruitment by Stanford Law School • Opinion of other law schools at the time • Uncertainties around the tenure process and lack of mentorship • A difficult time after her father’s death • Working to get more women hired to faculty with Barbara Babcock • Men calling their efforts the “Barbara and Deborah need a friend memo” • Special demands on female faculty when there are few women • Applying to be the director for the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (now the Clayman Institute for Gender Research) • A difficult time after her father’s death and impact of reading Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich • Salary discrepancies between men and women at Stanford • Faculty Women’s Caucus and negotiating with provost to publish salary curves • Committee examining gender differences in non-salary forms of compensation • Worst teaching experience in legal ethics • Debating Roy Cohn in legal ethics • Advice from Michael Wald on public interest work versus academia • Taking pro bono cases with the ACLU • Experience of working for the House Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment proceedings • Initiatives as director of Clayman Institute and history of name changes • Encouragement from Diane Middlebrook to publish one of her articles “The No-Problem Problem” as a book, Speaking of Sex • Importance of building support network of women to her own work • Report on Status of Women Faculty; Faculty Women’s Forum • Task Force on Women in Leadership • Relationship between Stanford Law School and university as a whole • Teaching collaboratively • Appreciation of IT, library, and all university staff • Students today engaging in activism • Improving the number of faculty of color • Reflections on current political environment • Husband Ralph Cavanagh and his support for her career • Decision to not have a child • Need for leadership development training for women and for law students • Creating and teaching course on leadership issues
Description
Type of resource | sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
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Extent | 3 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Date created | April 11, 2018 |
Language | English |
Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
Interviewee | Rhode, Deborah L. | |
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Creator | Rhode, Deborah L. | |
Interviewer | Marques, Nadejda | |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
Subject | Rhode, Deborah L. |
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Subject | Stanford University. School of Law |
Subject | Law teachers |
Subject | Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993 |
Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
Biographical Profile |
Deborah L. Rhode is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, the director of the Center on the Legal Profession, and the director of the Program in Law and Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford University. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Yale College, and received her JD from Yale Law School. She clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1979.
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Transcript |
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Finding Aid | |
Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/pq029gf0266 |
Location | SC0932 |
Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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