More on the legal gender gap

The New York Times is giving attention to the issue (or struggle depending on how you look at it) in Marci Alboher’s article Law Firms Get Rated on Female Friendliness.

Alboher noted, “[i]n an era where law students freely ask firms questions about the number of women being promoted to partner, policies on flexible work schedules, diversity, and general quality of life, surveys like this hold a lot of power.”

However, she concluded with the following anecdote:

On a less hopeful note, Mr. Revsesz, the N.Y.U. Law School dean told a story about trying to persuade the chairman of a big law firm that as long as lawyers were available to work on client matters late into the evening, it shouldn’t matter whether they are still at their office desks or whether they are working from home after having dinner with their families. Apparently, Mr. Revsesz was unable to make any headway with the law firm partner, even with an example that involved working a 13-hour day.

Progress?

But there are also skeptics of the survey.  Some think it is just a law firm PR ploy.  Find more on the fight over the survey here.

Litigation v. Family Life

The Legal Blog Watch addressed the issue of the struggle women attorneys face when also raising a family in Can Women Litigate and Procreate?  The answer seemed to be “no.” 

 LBW quoted Nicole Black of Women Lawyers – Back on Track: “I love trying cases–always have, always will. And yet. And yet. I have a family–a husband and young children whom I actually enjoy spending time with on a daily basis.”  As for litigation, Black wrote, “ I enjoy it and it’s in my blood, but I can live without it–for now.  So, research and writing it is…”  

LBW also quoted Dan Hull, What About Clients, who has the attitude that you either “serve clients with passion and energy…or get out of the game.” 

A commentor on LBW noted, “[i]mplicit in all the questions about work-life balance is the assumption that caring for children and maintaining family ties is women’s work. So nobody asks a male litigator how he ‘does it all’, or wonders if he is capable of doing the job and being a father at the same time.”

The answer can’t be “no” for everyone.  Has anyone worked out the work-life balance? 

Pay and the Gender Gap

On payday, it’s still a man’s world 

Study: Females earn 80 percent of what men earn one year after graduating from college; falls to 69 percent 10 years later.

That is particularly interesting in light of articles like this:

The New Gender Gap           

From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex