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Being a “First”—Over and Over Again

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Being a “First”—Over and Over Again Being a “First”—Over and Over Again Nancy B. Rapoport* 1 For the first time in its history, Yale Law School will have a woman at the helm: Law professor Heather Gerken will succeed Robert Post … as the school’s 17th dean.2 The origins of Yale Law School trace to the earliest days of the 19th century[,] when law was learned by clerking as an apprentice in a lawyer’s office. The first law schools, including the one that became Yale, developed out of this apprenticeship system and grew up inside law offices.3 What do you mean, “Yale just named its first woman dean?” It’s 2017, for goodness’s sake.4 I’ve been a “first” several times over. I was the first woman law dean at the University of Nebraska College of Law, the first woman law dean at the University of Houston Law Center, the first woman law dean5 at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and possibly the first woman serving as (acting) provost at UNLV.6 I may also 1 © Nancy B. Rapoport 2021. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are my own and not those of UNLV or the Nevada System of Higher Education. Special thanks go to Brian Foster, who got me interested in the anthropology of higher education; my two best editors, Jeff Van Niel and Morris Rapoport; and Ellen Blatt, who did a superb job as the student editor of this essay. 2 Jingyi Cui, Heather Gerken Named First Female Dean of Yale Law School, YALE DAILY NEWS (Feb. 21, 2017, 2:46 PM), https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/02/21/heather-gerken-named-first-female-dean-of- yale-law-school/. 3 Origins of Yale Law School, YALE LAW SCHOOL, (last visited July, 18, 2021),https://law.yale.edu/about-yale-law-school/glance/our-history. 4 Me (edited to avoid profanity), at the time of the announcement. 5 Depending on how one counts: I was the Interim Dean at Boyd from 2012-2013, so if “interim” counts, we can add this “first” to the list. 6 There are two issues about how to count this part of my career—whether being an “acting” provost counts, see id., and if there are no good records about who has served 2 Denver Law Review Forum [7-31-2021] have been one of the first women at my law firm to wear pants to work, way back in the mid-1980s. Here’s what I’ve noticed about being a “first.” Being a “first” usually means differing from the norm, unless you’re both a founder and a “first” in a position. The first deans of the law schools listed above weren’t the first male deans. They were just the first deans. The same principle holds true for most people who are the first provosts, presidents, and lawyers wearing pants to work. They weren’t called out by gender in their roles. They were just leaders. I’ve been a leader, too, but because women are still unusual in certain types of leadership roles, I have gotten the “first” moniker a lot. Being a non-founder “first” also means that people will compare your leadership style to those who came before you—and not always in the way that you might think. Often, new academic leaders are chosen for their ability to take an institution in a certain, previously defined direction. Maybe it’s the same direction in which the last leader also chose to go, or maybe there’s a new leader in place because the institution wants to change course. But people watching a new “first” begin her job tend to think, “oh, she does X or Y because she’s a woman,” not “oh, she does X or Y in a way different from her predecessor because they are different people (or because the institution needs to take a different tack)7.” Part of being a “first,” then, is recognizing that people are learning who you are based only in part on you. In part, they’re learning who you are by learning who and what you’re not. You’re basically “not the guy who came before you.” You might not be that guy because that guy was good at certain tasks, and you’re good at different ones. You might not be that guy because the institution’s needs have changed. For example, the institution’s goals may have moved from the internal, let’s-fill-the-potholes-so-that-the- roads-are-navigable work, to the external, no-bucks-no-Buck-Rogers8 work. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. If an institution needs a in that role before 2007 (which is when I joined UNLV), can we really make the assertion that I’m the first woman provost? 7 And the word is “tack” (from sailing), not “tact,” which is an entirely different concept. 8 THE RIGHT STUFF (Warner Bros. Pictures 1983) (one of my favorite movies), available at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/quotes: Gordon Cooper: You boys know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up. Gus Grissom: He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers. [7-31-2021] Denver Law Review Forum 3 program builder or someone who can get a place back on track, I’m the right person to call. If an institution is already working extremely well in every department and nothing needs to change, then I’m probably not the right person to call. I’m better at building than at maintaining, so some of my stints as a “first,” then, have suited me better than others. In each case though, being a “first” as a dean or a provost involved meshing some stereotypically feminine approaches with some stereotypically masculine ones. In a relatively recent study, Tor Eriksson, Nina Smith, and Valdemar Smith developed eleven traits that they thought might contribute to managerial success and then asked respondents to rank-order them. Then the authors classified the traits as being stereotypically masculine, feminine, or neutral. Masculine Items: Decisive, in self-control, willing to take risk, competitive, self- confident Feminine Items: Socially competent, dialogue-oriented, helpful Neutral Items: Result-oriented, visionary, innovative9 Based on these gender stereotypes and on my own experiences, I believe that some of my colleagues were jarred by my managerial style because it differed from how they expected to see a woman manage.10 9 Tor Eriksson, Nina Smith, &Valdemar Smith, Gender Stereotyping and Self- Stereotyping Attitudes: A Large Field Study of Managers, IZA DP No. 10932, IZA INSTITUTE OF LABOR ECONOMICS DISCUSSION (Aug. 2017) (Just remember: those authors are using those classifications. I’d have classified at least some of them differently.), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3029802. 10 I know that I’ve changed as a leader over my 20+ years in leadership positions. Not coincidentally, my Marine scout sniper husband has also helped me change some behaviors in our 20+ years together. He’s been my best sounding board for tough decisions and is a wonderful coach. 4 Denver Law Review Forum [7-31-2021] I fit plenty of feminine stereotypes.11 I’m empathetic and good at listening.12 I try to find ways to bring people together to talk and to compromise. People are comfortable expressing their emotions in front of me, so I fit right in with the stereotype. But I fit with certain male stereotypes, too. I like making a decision; I like taking risks; I’m comfortable with conflict; I play to win; I keep score (at least some of the time). And I’m tougher than I look.13 I know countless women who are tough, conflict-ready scorekeepers, just as I know countless men who are good at listening, making people feel at home, and compromising. Not only are there stereotypes for gender, but there are stereotypes for racial, ethnic, political, and religious groups (to name but a few categories). All of these common stereotypes are shorthand ways of thinking about groups of people, but they don’t define any of us as individuals. Stereotypes, no matter how inaccurate, can come in handy, though, when you want to exploit them. My favorite example of using stereotypes to a person’s advantage comes via Susan Sarandon’s character, Reggie Love, in the movie version of The Client. In one scene, she walks into a roomful of lawyers who are interested in information that her young client may have. Her hair is pinned up; she’s wearing a fairly “girly” suit and feminine jewelry; her voice goes up at the end of each sentence; and she asks the gaggle of male lawyers to “oh, please sit.” She hits every note of the stereotypical woman lawyer, right up until she nails them with questions that showcase her competence. By playing to the stereotype, she gets them to let down their guard. And like most people who underestimate someone by assuming that the stereotype defines the person, the other lawyers in the 11 There are other instances of what some might call stereotypical female-ness, too. I wear makeup—a fair amount of makeup, actually—probably because my hobby (competitive ballroom dancing) involves wearing makeup, too. Lots of women academics eschew makeup, but I don’t. I also have red hair in a shade that does not naturally occur in nature. In terms of my appearance, I probably fit in more with other “artsy” people than I would with those in a Fortune 500 boardroom.
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