"The fact that women and people of color tend to underperform at professional schools is a source of controversy. Conservatives blame affirmative action, while liberals blame intentional discrimination. The extensive research reported in Professional Identity Crisis belies both conspiracy theories. The author spent over 400 hours observing how first-year students are socialized in two very different environments, Boalt School of Law and the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, watching how they adapted to different expectations of how to speak, dress, and behave in the classroom. Her research showed that the disproportionate success of white men can be explained by the fact that they are more likely to acquire appropriate professional identities swiftly, with little inner conflict, while students from less privileged backgrounds, however, suffered from "identity dissonance.""--Jacket.

The professional school experience : an informal introduction -- Who are you? : identity theorized -- Research contexts : the how and where of it -- Role models : the socializing influence of professors and peers -- Lessons learned : the socializing influence of pedagogy -- The identity crisis : consonance and dissonance experienced -- Patterns observed : the reproduction of social stratification at professional schools -- Conclusion : disparate impacts, disaffection, and strategies for reducing identity dissonance.