Celebrating Women at Akron Law

“Akron Law has always been a school that recognizes talent without regard to race, gender or religion. Women have been assistant and associate deans and one was an interim dean for two years. We have had a woman as head of our Intellectual Property Center, and the heads of our Constitutional Law Center and Ethics Center are both women. Women alumni have told me that they always felt welcome at our school and were especially proud of their successes on our trial team and moot court. Look at the number of women alumni who have served and now serve as judges. Look at our female faculty and staff, including our dean, and how these women serve as role models. The reputation of our inclusiveness was and is a factor for attracting women students and faculty and staff.  Our collective support once they are here has led to their successful careers.”  - Dean and Professor, Emeritus Martin Belsky

Next year—2025—will mark the 100th anniversary of the first woman graduate of The University of Akron School of Law. Ailene McMurray Trusler, the sole woman among the first graduating class of the fledgling Akron Law School, went on to become the first woman to work as a lawyer in the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office.

Other women followed in her path, but their numbers remained small. Nevertheless, Akron Law can be proud—considering the era—that over those first 38 years prior to the original law school’s merger into the University in 1959, 23 of the 626 graduates were women.

Note the two women in the second row and a third behind them in the center of this 1926 photo.

The Akron story is consistent with what was happening nationally. According to a 2023 paper in the Journal of Legal Analysis, “Women in U.S. Law Schools, 1948–2021,” women made slow gains in the legal profession during the half-century spanning 1920–1970, in both law student enrollment and on law faculties.                                                                                            

By the early 1970s, according to the paper, virtually all law school classes had at least five women. Yet women’s total share of students across all law schools remained low, as most law schools were admitting only a few token women. But the times were changing, thanks in part to a series of federal antidiscrimination laws along with pressure from the American Association of Law Schools.                                                                                                                    

At Akron Law, “No class had what we consider today to be a ‘critical mass’ of women until the class of 1978,” according to a 2015 history of the early years of the School of Law. But by fall 1979, one-third of the incoming class of 183 students were women.

Fast forward to 2016, when the number of women in law school surpassed the number of men, according to the American Bar Association. As of 2023, the gender gap has widened to 13.4 percentage points.

Over the last 10 years at Akron Law, women’s share of the graduating class has averaged 45% and ranged from 37% to 55%. It’s twice been higher than 50%.