Blog #39: Status of Women in Law

Many things need to change in order to promote the equality between men and women in the law firm.  They also need to respect the family life that every attorney has at home, and understand that they have an obligation to take care of and spend time with their family.  Being constantly connected to their work world severely takes away from their home life.  Their children have to be in day care longer, their relationship with their spouse can suffer and they aren't able to recover from the long hours and stressful job material.  Nothing is going to be able to change the stress level of an attorney at a firm, and the hours that they are SOMETIMES forced to work as long as this is occasional.  Every job at some point can require a little bit of over time as long as they are compensated.  

Along with this understanding of family life, if a part time schedule is offered, then they need to only work part time hours.  If they are full time they need to work full time hours.  Certain attorneys that work part time should not be overlooked for opportunities because of their commitment to their family.  Often, the women in the relationship have to make it their priority to care for the children because the man won't and they should be looked up to for this, and not be forced to give up their career.  Men and women need to be paid on the same pay scale.  There is no reason that they should be paid only 76% of what men are paid, when they are doing the exact same job and putting in the exact same amount of work.  This will help to improve the moral of the female employees because they are finally on the same level as men.  

Overall, the legal profession needs to understand the differences between men and women but those differences should mean nothing towards their work ethic, how much they are paid, or how they are treated at work.  They should all be treated the same depending on their education and skill level, the only things that should matter to an employer.  

Blog #38: Status of Women in Law

Women in the Judiciary--

Florence Ellinwood Allen (First Lady of the Law):  Florence graduated from NYU Law school with honors.  She went on to become the first Ohio women to become a county prosector.  She also was the first women to argue a case to the United States Supreme Court.  She was then elected to the State Trial Court where she heard a first degree murder trial.  After her experience at the state level, she was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to the Federal Court.   Her experiences being the first women to succeed in her legal career really sparked the rest of the female motivation to become involved in the legal field.  Before Florence, women were not able to participate, let alone succeed, in these types of careers, and she showed the female population that it is possible.  

Women in The Practice of Law--

Myra Bradwell:   In 1870 there were only 5 female attorneys in the local census, so it was not a career that was flooded by women.  She began reading law with her husband who was a judge.  She decided to take the test to pass the Chicago Bar and ended up succeeding, and passing the test.  The Illinois Supreme Court denied her admission to the Illinois State Bar because she was married.  When she was upset with the outcome, she took the decision to the United States Supreme Court.  The U.S. Supreme court upheld the decision of the Illinois court and said "the natural and proper timidity and the delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many occupations of civil life...Paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign office of wife and mother.  This is the law of the creator."  Eventually, this decision was overturned and Bradwell was granded her license to practice law.  However, this story does show how much has changed in the legal field.  Women were not allowed to practice law, even if they were smart enough to get the job done because their mission in life was to be a wife and a mother.  Wow, times sure have changed.  

Blog #37: Status of Women in Law

The report, Charting Our Progress, by the American Bar Association was very similar to the other readings that we have been reading.  They talk about the increases in women in the legal field, which is always a great thing, but creates an issue when it comes to the work/home life balance that many working mothers face.  There were many similarities between English's findings and the report in terms of the struggle to balance things such as a career and child care or elderly care.  

Many law firms and legal organizations understand that this balance is difficult and often provide part-time schedules to accommodate their employees with children at home.  Although this would be a great option for many women, they often are not inclined to take advantage of these schedules because they have been afraid that they will not be as valued as the full time employees that can devote more time to their firm.  They are afraid that they will not be given the same opportunities as the other employees because of this.   They are also concerned about something called "schedule creep" which is when someone is working part time for part time compensation but consistantly being asked to take on more work and work longer hours without being compensated for the extra work.  This can be a big problem for many of the attorneys because they would assume be employed as a full time attorney being paid a full time salary instead of being classified and paid as part time and working full time hours.  

Many New York attorneys are asked to put in about 2,400 billable hours per year, plus an additional 600+ non-billable hours.  This would be an extremely hard schedule to work if you had children, especially if this is what is expected.  This type of work commitment forces someone to choose between their career and their home life, which often is not a choice.   They aren't able to participate in the extra activities that are needed to be a successful attorney such as attending meetings, etc. so they are looked down upon.  

Technology is something that a lot of women use as a way to get around the hectic hours that are expected of them, however this creates a problem.  If you have the ability to take calls and emails where ever you are you don't have the ability to separate yourself from work and you are constantly deemed available by your clients.  This will take away from your family time and you will log many more non-billable hours that you are not being compensated for.  

Blog #36: Balancing Family & Law Career

I think that it will be very lard to lure women back into corporate American because of the way they are continuously treated. It has to be a very hard situation to have to succeed in the workplace because of all of the gender discrimination that occurs. Coming back into a career with the thought that it could happen again would be a major setback for many women. The discrimination severely discouraged a lot of women in the working world to make them think that they were not good enough.

It takes a lot of personal strength and determination to enter back into a profession where you know that you were mistreated. The glass ceiling has been a discouragement to women because they feel as if they will never succeed past this barrier unless they are male. They recognize that gender can't change, so they are not confident in their abilities once they have left the working world.

Blog #34: Balancing Family & Law Career

The work/life balance has been a hard thing for all working mothers to overcome. They often recognize that their family comes first and that is a hard balance because many times you aren't able to figure out where your career is supposed to fall into place. You work so hard to become a career woman and break the stereotypes of not being able to succeed in the business world. Then you have a baby and you have a responsibility to your family. Or even without children, you still have a responsibility to the "2ND job" that you have when you get home. Cleaning and cooking in the house, is literally an entire 2ND job when you get home from work. Women are constantly expected to be the "mother" while their husbands are at work making all of the money. The problem with this, is there is not always a father figure that is out making the money. What happens when the woman is the only one working? They are forced to work just to afford the child care for their children while they are at work.

The Joan WIlliams interview compared to Putting Children First is amazing. They are dealing with the same types of problems in the book as many other women around the world. They are forcing themselves to work ridiculous hours just to pay for the day care and needs of their children, but the problem is, if they can only get low-wage jobs, their hours do not coincide with that of the child care facility. In order to make this work, they are relying on family or people that are not certified to be in the best in childcare. A live-in nanny would be way to expensive for a woman that is working a minimum wage job. Often, these women are missing work in order to care for their children. Also, if they are on government programs, they are forced to participate in programs and classes as well as working on the side in order to qualify. This creates another reason why the mother's will not be able to care for their children. When they stop going to the classes or programs they are dropped from the government assistance making them unable to provide for their children. This make the balance between work and home life nearly impossible, and it is hard as well for those mother's who have high paying jobs as well as a working husband bringing two incomes in instead of one minimum wage income.

Blog #33: Advancing in the Law

Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton really broke through the glass ceiling in the last election by running for two of the most powerful and prestigious positions in politics. This shows how far women have come, but it cannot be forgotten that there is still a long way to go. First, women were unable to vote, and now they are able to run for President of the United States without the entire world against them. Yes, it is not uncommon to come across men, and even females, that think that a woman in this type of office would not be a good idea and our country is not ready for it, however overall we are gaining more and more respect every day. Women together are breaking though this glass ceiling. However, there are still many hardships that women face. We have seen this specifically with Michelle Obama recently, and Sonyia Sotomayor. They are being judged based on everything but their scholastic aptitude and their ability to do the job, and do their job well. They are being judged off of stereotypes that have been in place for hundreds of years. Michelle Obama cannot be taken seriously just based on the type and color of clothing she wears. She has never looked unprofessional in the public eye, and just because she isn’t wearing typical “boring” colors of clothing like previous first ladies doesn’t mean she isn’t a responsible and professional woman. Sotomayor is being called vain and tough, when a man in her position doing the exact same thing is being praised for his ability to keep control of the courtroom. This is proof that women have come a long way but there are still many more milestones ahead as far as equality for me and women in such publicly political fields. Women need to judged based on their knowledge and contributions to their field and not by the clothing that they wear.

Blog #32: Advancing in the Law

Parenting differs between men and women because of previous stereotypes. It differ when attached to a woman because they have the reputation of being the maternal figure and regardless of what their career is, they are forced into the category of mother. Fathers have the reputation of being able to work to support their families. They are the bread winners, and it is acceptable if a father only sees his children for a few minutes before their bedtime because he has been at work all day. Parenthood means two completely different things when comparing mother and father. This stereotype really can impact the choices that mother’s who happen to be lawyers because they are seen as only a mother, and they are questioning whether their children or their career is most important. Unfortunately, other working mothers are not forced to make the choice because they have a relatively low stress level job and work normal hours. Working 80+ hours a week can take a toll on a mother, especially if you are still expected to come home, cook dinner and clean the house to provide for your family.

High powered female lawyers are often some of the most intimidating women in the world. They always put their job first and are often called “work-a- holics”. Obviously, their job is extremely important to them and in turn they are often questioned as a mother. They have worked extremely hard and beat so many speed bumps along the way to become a person of authority in the legal field that it would be hard to give that up for your family. When they try to do both, they are criticized about not being a good enough mother because they work too much. They might not be able to devote as much time to their family as another working mother but it shouldn’t discredit how much they love and support their family.