I stumbled across a new blog by Nicole Black, well-known for her New York law blog, Sui Generis. The new blog is entitled, Women Lawyers -- Back on Track.
Nicole says, "My goal is to provide women lawyers with resources and information about the legal field and to explore how they do/can happily and successfully fit into it." I'm looking forward to reading more.
This comes on the heels of a discussion I had with a group of lawyers about an an idea to have a CLE program that would focus on leadership and communication skills for women in the profession. Several of the men in the room objected, saying there was no need for a program to focus solely on women, and suggesting that such an idea was sexist - after all, there were no programs on communication or leadership skills specifically for men.
It is short sighted to ignore the very real gender differences between men and women in the profession. Of course, not all women are the same, just as not all men are the same. But the fact remains that there are gender differences, some of which are the result of genetics and some are the result of the different ways that girls and boys are socialized and educated within our society - and within law schools and law firms.
Instead of pretending that these gender differences don't exist, shouldn't we all be educating ourselves about those differences and how they serve (or don't serve) us in within the profession? Shouldn't we be learning about those differences so that we can help both women and men advance in the profession?
Let's face it - the law is a profession that was traditionally dominated by men, and although more and more women are entering the profession every year, the 'rules' were made by men. More men than women hold positions of leadership, and statistics show that women are paid less than men for the same work.
The New York State Bar Association recently released its report, Current Issues Affecting the Legal Profession 2008, which specifically addresses gender equity in the profession (at page 44).
As Black notes in her post, Post-Emily Post, attorney offers women lawyers advice, a recent Lawyers Weekly article noted continued impediments to the advancement of women in the profession, which include women getting a disproportionate number of less attractive assignments, evaluations that aren't gender neutral, and differences in the business development process.
In a post entitled, Women, law firms and semantics, blogger Jordan Furlong of Law21 agrees that it's 'disheartening' that we still need to discuss gender in law firm operations, but he admits that the problem still exists. Allison Wolf of The Lawyer Coach Blog posts in Rainmaking for Women Lawyers that the increased number of women entering the profession doesn't mean that an increased number of women are making it to the top. She comments on Furlong's post that,
I am interested at this time in promoting a dialogue among women and men about the challenges and obstacles that can and will arise for women and developing strategies for seeing more women through the labyrinth and into positions of power. An emphasis on the development of leadership skills along with career planning and mentorship for young women lawyers are vital elements of the solution.
Larry Bodine posts an article on his site entitled Rainmaking: The Hammer to Break the Glass Ceiling for Women Lawyers. He says,
We know that women start to leave in their 4th or 5th year, with the result that only 17 percent of partners at major law firms are women, according to the National Association of Law Placement. (The same obstacles face lawyers of color.) The primary reason is that law is still a white men’s club – often a legal locker room with little support for ladies without a book of business.
Hopefully, all of this discussion will lead to action - and agreement that programs promoting women in the profession, in terms of developing leadership, communication and business development skills for women helps everyone in the profession - not just women.
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