LEADING PUBLICATIONS “Your Legal Rights as a Woman” authors, 1977: (left to right) Diane Pitts, Tracy Thompson, Diane Smock, and Jackie Blyn; (not pictured) Joan Kuriansky, and Susan Buckingham Reilly.
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Left: “Your Legal Rights as a Woman” handbook cover, 1979. Right: Trish Cooper ’95 and Dawn Henry ’95 at the 1994 conference of the National Women Law Student’s Association organized by VLW and the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law.
New Editors on North Grounds
A Handbook for Virginia Women
In the 1970s, women continued to join managing boards of Virginia Law’s student organizations and journals as the Law School moved to North Grounds. Phase I (1974) created a new student office complex on the third floor, and Phase II (1979) continued this expansion. Grace Belsches ’81 kept the Barrister yearbook afloat as the sole staff member for the 1980 edition. In 1981, the Virginia Tax Review joined the third-floor journals and published its first issue. Women comprised six of the 18 positions on the
From Virginia Law Women’s third-floor space—and then from a new office in the Phase I basement—members began researching and writing a new educational handbook on Virginia law. In 1977, as women across the U.S. sought equal rights and greater freedom, six members of Virginia Law Women—Joan Kuriansky ’77, Susan Buckingham Reilly ’78, Diane Pitts ’78, Jackie Blyn ’79, Diane Smock ’79, and Tracy Thompson ’79—published “Your Legal Rights as a Woman: A Handbook for Virginians.” Funded by the Virginia Commission on the Status of Women, the text explained legal issues relevant to women.
Tax Review’s first managing board. In November 1991, Virginia Law Women President Deborah Cleary ’91 headed the steering committee for a new journal at UVA Law: The Journal of Social Policy and the Law. The idea for the new publication came from Virginia Law Women members in the late 1980s. Still in publication, the journal covers civil rights issues, employment discrimination, reproductive freedom, family law, and LGBTQ+ rights, among other topics.
“Your Legal Rights as a Woman” also included a section on the Equal Rights Amendment, which had been approved by Congress in 1972, though not by the Virginia legislature, and was awaiting ratification at the time. The handbook quickly gained popularity with women at the University and across the state. VLW dispersed two thousand copies to public libraries, state agencies, and women’s organizations. The popularity of the handbook encouraged the group to publish two subsequent editions in 1979 and 1984 to address more topics like Title IX, debt and credit, mental health issues, and domestic violence.
“ A whole lot more
In 1978, Virginia Dunmire ’79 became the first female editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Weekly. Dunmire took the helm of the Weekly after previously serving as a staff writer and then production editor. During her tenure, the newspaper won four national awards from the American Bar Association for reporting, design, and editorial cartoons.
HISTORY
The following year, Carol Stebbins ’80 became the first woman editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review. A Dillard Fellow, Stebbins’ first-year grades earned her a spot on Law Review as a second-year student. After taking over as the journal’s first female editor-in-chief in the spring of 1979, Stebbins said in an interview with the Law Weekly that she was glad this distinction “will now be out of the way” as she “would like to think it was not a factor at all.”
Third-year law student Dayna Matthew ’87 became the first Black editor of the Virginia Law Review in 1987, 74 years after the journal’s start. Matthew’s note on Virginia’s Natural Death Act earned her a spot on the Review’s editorial board at a time when students could “grade-on, writeon, or note-on.” Matthew later returned to UVA Law to teach as a member of the faculty.
” ”
needs to be made.
—Dayna Matthew ’87
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