When I read the article about minority women in law firms, it's really no wonder that they do not stay put for very long. It seems as if the other people in the law firm have no respect for these minority women. We have talked about how hard it is to be a woman in this field, and now add being a minority and the problems become ten times worse. The most striking part of this article for me was when an Asian lawyer was called into a meeting so she could translate Korean, and she didn't even know how to speak Korean. Not only was she embarrassed, but the client then felt uncomfortable as well. There were stories of a Native American woman who was tormented by her fellow lawyers asking if they could call her Pocahontas and what tribe she was from. To me, that's unacceptable and especially scary, because the lawyers job is to instill justice and to set those type of standards is not just at all.
The women feel so uncomfortable in their own place of work that they have to leave and find another job, often times to be treated the same way. I thought that the survey was extremely interesting, when it described the numbers of minorities that are passed up for deserving promotions and assignments, attending networking events, and even becoming partners compared to whites. The number is extremely skewed, furthering the problem of discrimination in the work place. With only 4% of firm partners being minorities, and even fewer being female minorities, this field doesn't seem like a healthy working environment. There are so many similarities between all of the stories and articles that I have read, which makes me question many of the people that work in these big law firms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment