http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1197496447626
I gave Echidne grief in a previous post for complaining about the arguments leveled against some of the sillier grievances of feminists (such as Mitt Romney's use of male nouns in his speech last week).
I called the gripe a tempest in a teapot, primarily because I've never liked the feminist attack on language. Getting insulted by the term "chairman," which comes from the Latin "mano" for "hand," undermined feminist arguments about actual sexism, IMO. Does it truly matter whether one says "manned" or "staffed"? Does it change who does which job and when?
Personally, I'm far more concerned about the sort of sexism discussed in this law.com article, Fighting the Subtler Side of Sexism. The article discusses the problems women have advancing in law firms. Those problems are not exclusively about gruelling hours and mommy tracks, but also about the way law firm business is conducted and mentoring.
Consider the partner preparing for a trial in 12 months. Does he add the female associate to the team? No, he strikes her from his list because she has a young family, and he figures committing the time down the road would be too hard...
Here's another example of the slights that, eventually, derail careers. A woman goes into a big meeting, says (Lorilei )Masters, (president of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia), and she raises an idea. "The conversation continues. Suddenly, 10 minutes later, a guy raises that same idea," and everyone loves it.
"It's an accumulation of those kinds of incidents," Masters says. "It's the accumulated drip-drip-drip."
I'm sure there are plenty of men who have had that happen to them and I'm not arguing that it doesn't happen in other circumstances. But, as Echidne pointed out in her post, it happens to women. A lot. Is there a way of pointing it out, getting credit for one's ideas, without sounding like a whiny little kid? Most women would like to know that, if it's possible.
The impact of subtler sexism is enormous.
Masters' point ties in with a report released just last month by the National Association of Women Lawyers. The group's second annual survey on the status of women in law firms found (big surprise) that "women advance into the upper levels of law firms with only a fraction of the success enjoyed by their male classmates." Those fractions are well-known: The NAWL found, for instance, that an average of 16 percent of the firms' equity partners are women. Compare that with national numbers offered up by NALP (formerly the National Association for Legal Professionals) from 2005, when 48 percent of summer associates and 44 percent of first-year associates were women.
Even more interestingly, the NAWL survey (which questioned 200 of the country's largest firms and received responses from 112) found a significant salary gap as women advance through the ranks. Male and female associates, for the most part, make about the same amount. But male of counsel earn about $20,000 more than female of counsel, male nonequity partners make about $27,000 more than their female counterparts and male equity partners bring in almost $90,000 more than female equity partners.
What gives? It goes back to the theory of assumptions and slights. The NAWL survey wonders "whether women lawyers are given as many choice assignments, introductions to key firm clients and other opportunities to grow their own practices" as the men.
Success in law is based as much on one's ability to sell to clients as it is to prowess in the courtroom. Without the opportunities, women lawyers will flounder and, eventually, leave a firm for better chances elsewhere. Perhaps this helps explain why so many women lawyers go into solo or small practices.
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