Expanding the Faculty

The Virginia Law Women led the call for more female faculty members. By 1971, 51 years after coeducation, only three women had taught at the Law School. Frances Farmer started as a lecturer in 1944 and in 1968 became the Law School’s first woman professor of law and the first woman to earn tenure at Virginia Law. In 1962, Priscilla Apperson ’62 became the second woman to teach at the Law School. She was the first woman on the full-time teaching faculty when she was hired as an instructor in law to teach Legal Method. Gail Marshall ’68 joined the faculty in 1968, also as an instructor, and one year later she was promoted to assistant professor. However, by 1972, only Farmer remained as a female professor. VLW encouraged Law faculty and Dean Monrad Paulsen to take a stronger, more affirmative approach to hiring female faculty members. In March 1972, VLW hosted a meeting with Dean Paulsen to discuss the lack of women on the faculty. When a male faculty member implied that there was no need to prioritize diversity in hiring, women attendees cited the Law School’s poor reputation among prospective female students. They argued that female faculty members, like Professor Marshall, helped to recruit female students, and often served as mentors to those students once at UVA.

In 1973, Lillian Altree (BeVier) joined UVA Law, eventually becoming the first woman on the full-time teaching faculty to earn tenure at the Law School. A graduate of Stanford Law School, BeVier taught at Santa Clara Law School and served as assistant staff counsel at Stanford University before coming to UVA. BeVier was hesitant to let her gender overshadow her professional credentials. In an interview with the Virginia Law Weekly, she asserted that “I tend to view myself not as a woman pursuing a career in law, but as me pursuing a career in law.” She acknowledged, however, that being a woman did influence her career and that she was eager to meet UVA Law’s female students. BeVier and the Virginia Law Women worked closely together to address issues of gender equity at the Law School.

1944: Frances Farmer begins teaching Legal Bibliography, becoming the first female lecturer at UVA Law. In 1968, she became the first woman to earn tenure and be appointed professor of law at the Law School.

Frances Farmer poses with other Law faculty, ca. 1950.

1962: Priscilla Apperson ’62 becomes the first female instructor on the full-time teaching faculty.

At the request of the Virginia Law Women, Dean Monrad Paulsen and professors Richard Merrill and Emerson Spies met with law students in 1972 to discuss the hiring of a full-time female faculty member. Virginia Law Weekly, March 24, 1972.

1969:

Gail Marshall ’68 becomes the first female assistant professor on the teaching faculty.

1970s

1973: Lillian Altree (BeVier) joins the faculty, eventually becoming the first woman on the full-time teaching faculty to earn tenure at the Law School. 1985:

Mildred Ravenell (Robinson) becomes UVA Law’s first Black female professor. She taught federal income tax, state and local tax, and trusts and estates.