Blog 24

Blog 24

I came away from my research with one main thought: Female lawyers are definitely in a catch-22 situation. Another way of saying it is that female lawyers have to deal with a double standard. I got the impression that if a female lawyer acts too aggressively, she will be considered a bully by her peers. By the same token, if she is not aggressive enough, she will be considered a wimp and will be ineffective in court. Those of us that are older have probably seen the TV show Matlock. Matlock’s daughter practiced law with him. She was often portrayed as being tough and, as a result, had no kind of home or social life.
An organization that exists to help female lawyers not only get ahead in their profession, but also to cope with issues, is the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL). This organization is totally voluntary. NAWL publishes newsletters with very informative and educational articles for female lawyers. NAWL spends a lot of time focused on issues that are relevant at that time to female lawyers.
One thing I found in my research is that many female lawyers are leaving the profession. Some are leaving for maternity leave, while others are leaving because of issues with their children. Some other issues include the number of hours required of work and also the number of hours involved in being a good mother wife and mother. Many women are deciding it is more important to invest the hours in being a good wife and mother.
While female lawyers have come a long, long way in achieving equality with male lawyers, they still have a long way to go. The hardest part may still be to come. The women have to earn the same pay as men. Women have to be treated the same as men. Until this happens, true equality does not exist.
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