My Must-Take Course: Gender Justice
My first day of the course Gender Justice was revolutionary. I got to class early, because it was at Columbia Law School and I had never been there before. The class was being taught by Katherine Franke, who is a Barnard alum and legal expert in issues of gender justice. The lecture room filled with a mix of Barnard students, law students, and other graduate students. The chairs and desks were a little fancier than the ones at Barnard. Everything felt just a little more special in this graduate classroom.
Gender Justice took place once a week on Monday afternoons. Mondays quickly became my favorite day of the week — I would call my dad and say “Guess what day it is? Gender Justice Monday!” Eventually, a few weeks later, he caught on, and would greet me saying, “Happy Gender Justice Monday!”
Professor Franke quickly became a huge role model of mine. Each week we learned about different topics ranging from sexual violence to dress codes and how they affect women and girls in the law. One week, we read the decision of Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized gay marriage in the United States. Professor Franke included only specific parts of the brief so that it was accessible for students to read who had never been in a law course before. One week was on the criminalization of pregnancy. Professor Franke approached each topic with an intersectional lens.
Each class, students would present an op-ed about a topic of Gender Justice that we were not covering in class. One week someone wrote about gender reveal parties for babies. I wrote about how the bra industry needs to support people of all genders and create more gender neutral options. It was so exciting to see my classmates present on different issues they were passionate about at the start of class each week. We would clap for them, and settle into Professor Franke’s interactive lectures.
Professor Franke was extremely generous in offering her time. I attended her office hours multiple times throughout the semester. She genuinely wanted to know how her students were doing. Three semesters later, I am still attending her office hours and she continues to be a mentor in my life. She has told me about her experiences at Barnard and how she has watched the College evolve over time. She has recommended other professors to connect with for my work that studies the Holocaust and my family’s history, and has helped me realize that Gender Justice Law is a field that combines many of my interests. I feel at ease and excited in the comfortable chairs in her office that look out towards Columbia, and of course, we exchanged opinions on the new movie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Barnard-Columbia relationship came together in perfect synchronicity, and I am so grateful to be able to work with Professor Franke as an undergraduate student.
-Jenna Zucker