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Women take the lead
For five years, Aubrey Giraldez of Hollywood worked as a billing clerk in a law office. In another five years, the second-year law student at Nova Southeastern University may have her own law office. "It's important for the world to see that it's not always going to be like it was," said Giraldez, 27. "We're all climbing the ladder." In three decades, women have gone from being a minority in higher education to a majority, also advancing in traditionally male-dominated fields such as law and medicine. Women make up about 58 percent of U.S. college students, a 13 percent jump from 1975. The gender gap holds true at most of Florida's major universities, but is most prominent at NSU, where women comprise 71 percent of the student body. U.S. Census figures show the overall population is evenly divided between men and women between the ages of 18 to 64. Administrators at NSU, which has 26,000 students, say the gender gap is a sign of progress. "For years, women were not entering higher education," said Don Rosenblum, dean of NSU's undergraduate school. … Joseph Harbaugh, NSU's law dean, said he expects the demographics of law schools will continue to shift to reflect the changes seen at the undergraduate level. The degree is enticing because law students are trained in problem-solving and analytical skills that can be applied to outside careers such as science and technology, public service and real estate, he said. "Law is one of the more attractive professional schools for women," Harbaugh said. "It's slowly beginning to change the makeup of the profession."
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