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This year, New England Law | Boston has been recognized by both Enjuris and The Princeton Review as one of 2020's best law schools for women. 

Female law school enrollment at an all time high

For the fifth year in a row women continue to outnumber men in law school classrooms across the country. The number of women enrolled in Juris Doctorate (JD) programs moved past 50% (making them the majority) for the first time in 2016. Female enrollees proceeded to outnumber male enrollees every year since then. In 2020 women made up 54.09% of all students in ABA-approved law schools.

New England Law receives two 'top 5' rankings

In this year's Enjuris report of the top 20 law schools based on female enrollment, New England Law came in at #4. Over the five years that Enjuris has been publishing their report, New England Law's female enrollment has been steadily on the rise.

The Princeton Review also compiles their own ranking every year of what they consider to be the law schools with the greatest resources for women. Their rankings are based on "the percentage of the student body who identify as women as well as on student answers to a single survey question: whether all students are afforded equal treatment by students and faculty regardless of their gender". New England Law was ranked #3 in the country. 

A rich history of teaching women

The fact that New England Law is a popular destination for women shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the school's history. New England Law | Boston began in 1908 as Portia Law School, which offered a legal education exclusively to women at a time when most other institutions would not accept them at all.

Many of the earliest Portia Law School students were from working-class and immigrant families, most arriving to the school with only a high school education. For decades most of the women who passed the Massachusetts bar examination were Portia graduates. The school became co-ed in 1938, but since its founding has stayed true to its original values, and strives to be a place that welcomes the brightest and most ambitious future female lawyers of tomorrow. 

Learn more about where it all started: New England Law History