Organization initiatives that need to occur before work/life balance can be obtained and equity among men and women is gained in the legal profession varies. One of the initiatives is to form a system. “Many respondents complained that systems within organizations often were nonexistent, or poorly designed to prevent inadequacies. The value of a good system is inestimable; a host of gender issues occur because of a lack of alignment between a professed policy and actual practice.” (306) These systems can be used in many different ways. For example they can be used for performance reviews, mentoring, work assignments, flexible work arrangements, risk taking and measurements for success. Along with systems, organization initiatives include engaging in dialogue. “Organizations that seek to reconcile clashing views often employ open group debate and dialogue techniques and reach a consensus and find common ground.” (310) Two topics that require engaging in heavy dialogue would be workplace responsibility and underlying attitude. If those things are not discussed in an organization, then they can lead to many problems.
When it comes to re-imaging the future, English believes, “ We can’t get to the numerical goals without embracing new, broad ideas. One way to do that is to go back to first principles about how best to deliver legal services, who makes a good lawyer, the best way to manage a workplace, and the most effective way to deal with the intersection between personal and professional lives.” (315) I think all of these are very good points brought up by English. Both males and females in the office need to work together in order to make the environment more compatible for themselves as well as their clients. The structure of a good lawyer and the norms of a good lawyer need to be revamped too. The norms need to be set for both male and female and not just male. When you take these things and put them together, there is hope for a re-imaged future, but it is going to take a lot of time and effort and that needs to be recognized as well.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
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Florence E. Allen was known as The First Lady of Law. Allen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 23, 1884. She attended New York University School of Law and graduated with her law degree in 1913. She had many firsts in her life, but the most significant one was probably when she was the first woman appointed to a federal court, when President Franklin Roosevelt named her to be the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was also serve as justice to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Florence set the standards for women. It was as if she gave women the go ahead to become a part of the legal profession and make something of themselves. She was the many of first which just opened up the opportunity for other women, without Allen, who knows where women would stand today in the legal profession.
Bella Abzug was elected to Congress as a Representative from New York’s 19th district in 1971. She was born in the Bronx, New York on July 24, 1920. On the website www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org the article about Abzug by Blanche Wisen Cook, Cook states, “Abzug predated women’s right to vote by one month. A fighter for justice and peace, equal rights, human dignity, environmental integrity and sustainable development, Bella Abzug has advanced human goals and political alliances worldwide.” Although known for her labor law skills, but, “Above all, Abzug achieved splendid victories for women. She initiated the congressional caucus on women’s issues, helped organize the National Women’s Political Caucus, and served as chief strategist for the Democratic Women’s Committee, which achieved equal representation for women in all elective and appointive posts, including presidential conventions. She wrote the first law banning discrimination against women in obtaining credit, credit cards, loans, and mortgages, and introduced pioneering bills on comprehensive child care, Social Security for homemakers, family planning, and abortion rights.” says Cook.
Abzug stood up for women and fought for their rights. She opened up so many new windows for women. She opened women up to an entire different world that gave them the opportunity to go and make a life by themselves. She gave women the opportunity to not have to rely on men in order to get houses and things like that because she got women the right to have credit and things like that. She opened up new ideas for women lawyers and showed them the way.
Florence set the standards for women. It was as if she gave women the go ahead to become a part of the legal profession and make something of themselves. She was the many of first which just opened up the opportunity for other women, without Allen, who knows where women would stand today in the legal profession.
Bella Abzug was elected to Congress as a Representative from New York’s 19th district in 1971. She was born in the Bronx, New York on July 24, 1920. On the website www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org the article about Abzug by Blanche Wisen Cook, Cook states, “Abzug predated women’s right to vote by one month. A fighter for justice and peace, equal rights, human dignity, environmental integrity and sustainable development, Bella Abzug has advanced human goals and political alliances worldwide.” Although known for her labor law skills, but, “Above all, Abzug achieved splendid victories for women. She initiated the congressional caucus on women’s issues, helped organize the National Women’s Political Caucus, and served as chief strategist for the Democratic Women’s Committee, which achieved equal representation for women in all elective and appointive posts, including presidential conventions. She wrote the first law banning discrimination against women in obtaining credit, credit cards, loans, and mortgages, and introduced pioneering bills on comprehensive child care, Social Security for homemakers, family planning, and abortion rights.” says Cook.
Abzug stood up for women and fought for their rights. She opened up so many new windows for women. She opened women up to an entire different world that gave them the opportunity to go and make a life by themselves. She gave women the opportunity to not have to rely on men in order to get houses and things like that because she got women the right to have credit and things like that. She opened up new ideas for women lawyers and showed them the way.
37
In “Charting Our Progress”, they held hearings and collected data in 2003 to compare to what they had collected in 1988 and 1995. “Once again, the date revealed incremental progress- slightly higher percentages of law firm partnerships, judicial appointments, and tenured faculty positions- but brought into sharper focus the continuing disparity in advancement that women face, with an even greater disparity among women lawyers of color.” (4) Of course, men still hold the majority of leadership positions, but women are slowly trying to make their way up there. Some of the research that was found was: “from the 2003 hearings and data since 1995: the percentage of women in all aspects of the profession has grown. The representation of women in the profession grew to 29.1% of all lawyers in the United States, from 23% in 1994. Moreover, as the statistics below illustrate, women have increased their presence in law schools, in law firm partnerships, as general counsels of major corporations, and in the judiciary. From approximately 1994 to 2002: the percentage of law school entrants who were women increased from 45% to 50%; the percentage of women partners in major law firms increased from 12.91% to 16.3%; the percentage of women general counsels in Fortune 500 companies increased from 4% to 15%. (5)
In English’s book, she points out that although women have made progress, they have a very long way to go. As the report tries to stick to the positive side and only point out the good, English makes it a point to say, yes, we have made progress, but not as much as we should have and here are the things we need to do to fix it. “Despite this progress, women remain outsiders in many respects, the targets of lingering gender stereotypes that reflect positively on men but negatively on women. This is in part because the default image of a lawyer remains solidly male, dominated by men in numbers, attitudes, expectations, and assumptions.” (296)
In English’s book, she points out that although women have made progress, they have a very long way to go. As the report tries to stick to the positive side and only point out the good, English makes it a point to say, yes, we have made progress, but not as much as we should have and here are the things we need to do to fix it. “Despite this progress, women remain outsiders in many respects, the targets of lingering gender stereotypes that reflect positively on men but negatively on women. This is in part because the default image of a lawyer remains solidly male, dominated by men in numbers, attitudes, expectations, and assumptions.” (296)
36
Can corporate America lure the women back into the workforce? Well I think that all depends on one major thing, does America wants women back in the workforce? Now, a majority of people’s first reaction is going to be yes, but I think that is only because people think that is what they are suppose to say and women do not want an answer of what people are suppose to say. Of course corporate America can lure women back into the workforce, especially now since we are in a recession, but is America willing to give women the things they want in order to get them into the workforce, or are they going to just take advantage of them and get them back in not matter what? I think if America wants to lure women back into the workforce all they really have to do is make them some promises, tell them things they want to hear and boom, they are back in, but are they going to be able to keep them in? Women these days are much more powerful and independent then they were ten years ago. Yes of course they do not have as much power as they would like, but they are working on it. I think in order for America to get women back in the workforce AND keep them there, it is going to take some compromise and better understanding of women.
I think in order for America to lure women back in they are going to have to promise equality and show it. I think women are going to need higher positions and higher pay; they are going to want to earn just as much as men and be given the same tasks as men and it is not hard to find out exactly what men are paid and what they do. I also think women are going to need more respect towards motherhood and how they want to balance their family life and work life. If things like that are taken into consideration I think America can lure women back into the workforce, but if things are going to keep going the way they are going they are going to lose more women and it is going to be even more harmful to our economy.
I think in order for America to lure women back in they are going to have to promise equality and show it. I think women are going to need higher positions and higher pay; they are going to want to earn just as much as men and be given the same tasks as men and it is not hard to find out exactly what men are paid and what they do. I also think women are going to need more respect towards motherhood and how they want to balance their family life and work life. If things like that are taken into consideration I think America can lure women back into the workforce, but if things are going to keep going the way they are going they are going to lose more women and it is going to be even more harmful to our economy.
35
In the article “EEOC Recommends Employer “Best Practices” to Promote Work/Family Balance” by Joanna L. Grossman, the discuss the things companies should do in order to promote work/family balance and how important it is so recognize the difficulties women go through when trying to balance both. They also point out that not only is it mothers trying to take care of children, but it is also women trying to take care of aging parents or relatives with disabilities. In Gender on Trial, English says in order to get to an understanding between the balance of work and family, people have to stop disregarding part time lawyers and believe that they are just as good as full time lawyers. “There is a genuine confusion about how flexibility can work, for both sides. But there can’t be a real commitment to strengthening systems until the basic validity of a lawyer working different hours is accepted. So long as lawyers believe that full time is “the standard unit, and anything less than that is sub par,” there’s little motivation or zeal for revamping policies and procedures and enforcing systems rigorously.” (216) So, until everybody comes to a common understanding, people cannot move forward with the balance between work and family.
There are many reasons to consider what comes out of people balancing work and family, like part time schedules. Although part-time schedules seem to be a problem of balancing work and family, if you look at it from a positive angle you can see all the positive things that come out of it. High turnover and broad dissatisfaction in legal workplaces are causes of not being able to balance family and work life, so if schedules were more flexible that would not be a problem. Also, you would have more time to enjoy life, changing social trends, and with technology today, you could do more work at home and still be connected with the office.
There are many reasons to consider what comes out of people balancing work and family, like part time schedules. Although part-time schedules seem to be a problem of balancing work and family, if you look at it from a positive angle you can see all the positive things that come out of it. High turnover and broad dissatisfaction in legal workplaces are causes of not being able to balance family and work life, so if schedules were more flexible that would not be a problem. Also, you would have more time to enjoy life, changing social trends, and with technology today, you could do more work at home and still be connected with the office.
34
Work/life balance problems seem to constantly be a problem. In every job, people, both male and female, have to decide which life they are going to put first, their work life or their family life. Although almost everybody wants to balance both, that seems to be an impossibility in most cases. This issue hits close to home for me because I want to be a part of the legal profession after I am done with law school and I do not know if I am going to be able to balance both. I know that personally would be able to balance both because I have balanced my family, school and part-time job all through college and most of high school, but I do not know if society is going to let me balance both and this had held me back a little when deciding if I really do want to pursue my goal of becoming a lawyer and I do not think that is fair.
In the interview between Debra Levy and Joan Williams, one of the questions brought up was “It seems that many women of today leave the work force as a form of resistance to a work culture that makes it difficult to raise their children as they think best. What role did feminism play in the development of this type of work culture?” And Williams answered that, “Mainstream feminism asked women to perform like men. It did not start from where women are-caring for their children with a strong value system that dictates that desire. The movement for equality devalued mothers and the ideal of care giving in our society. But it is also true that the push for work/family balance has come from within feminism. One of the things I do is critique full-commodification feminism, which is the sense that women’s equality lies in performing as ideal workers along with men, and delegating childcare to outsiders.” This goes along with our book Gender on Trial in a way because in Gender on Trial it discusses how when women are in a profession such as being a lawyer or in the legal field, they are not expected to have babies and if they do, then they are looked at differently and looked at as if they cannot handle the work they use to. In Gender on Trial when a women lawyer has a baby, some of them take on part-time jobs and that is really not acceptable. In the end it does not work out the way it is suppose to.
This also leads to another question in the interview that asked, “Why is the ideal worker norm so damaging to mothers in our society?” Williams says it is so damaging because, “Most women with children cannot live up to a norm designed around the model of a man without childcare responsibilities.” I agree, the ideal worker norm is set to a man’s standard, not even taking into consideration a woman’s standard and especially not a woman who is a mother. This is also brought up in Gender on Trial. In the book they discuss the norm and how the norm is male, therefore leaving it almost impossible for women to ever fit that norm.
In the interview between Debra Levy and Joan Williams, one of the questions brought up was “It seems that many women of today leave the work force as a form of resistance to a work culture that makes it difficult to raise their children as they think best. What role did feminism play in the development of this type of work culture?” And Williams answered that, “Mainstream feminism asked women to perform like men. It did not start from where women are-caring for their children with a strong value system that dictates that desire. The movement for equality devalued mothers and the ideal of care giving in our society. But it is also true that the push for work/family balance has come from within feminism. One of the things I do is critique full-commodification feminism, which is the sense that women’s equality lies in performing as ideal workers along with men, and delegating childcare to outsiders.” This goes along with our book Gender on Trial in a way because in Gender on Trial it discusses how when women are in a profession such as being a lawyer or in the legal field, they are not expected to have babies and if they do, then they are looked at differently and looked at as if they cannot handle the work they use to. In Gender on Trial when a women lawyer has a baby, some of them take on part-time jobs and that is really not acceptable. In the end it does not work out the way it is suppose to.
This also leads to another question in the interview that asked, “Why is the ideal worker norm so damaging to mothers in our society?” Williams says it is so damaging because, “Most women with children cannot live up to a norm designed around the model of a man without childcare responsibilities.” I agree, the ideal worker norm is set to a man’s standard, not even taking into consideration a woman’s standard and especially not a woman who is a mother. This is also brought up in Gender on Trial. In the book they discuss the norm and how the norm is male, therefore leaving it almost impossible for women to ever fit that norm.
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The advancement of women in the legal profession is increasing little by little. The number of women in the legal profession is very little and the progress is moving very slowly, but they believe it will get there one day. To prove this, some women have taken the steps to starting their own law firm where only women are present. In the article, “Women’s History Month: Cracking The Glass Ceiling One Client At A Time”, two high powered litigators walked away from a high-powered firm and started their own firm and their means were to break the glass ceiling. Women do not hold nearly as many high end positions as men, but they are trying and eventually they will get there. Women are working very hard towards their masters and their PhD’s and although it is not paying off now, it eventually will. In the article, “Women’s History Month: Closing In On Office Gender Gap” by Rebecca Spitz, she states, “Continuing a trend that started in the 1980’s, women are taking on a larger role in the working world. “Increasingly as women have become more educated they’ve wanted to earn salaries to contribute to the family,” says Sheila Wellington, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “As opportunities open up, women have wanted to be part of that upward movement.”
Although advances like starting their own businesses and raising the numbers of female attorneys in firms and higher positions in firms are being made, women still face a lot of challenges as well. Women need to put themselves out their more, they need to bargain for more and in the end they will most likely get it. A lot of women are taken advantage of simply because they are women; they are not given everything they should be given because people do not think they deserve it or can handle it and that needs to change.
Although advances like starting their own businesses and raising the numbers of female attorneys in firms and higher positions in firms are being made, women still face a lot of challenges as well. Women need to put themselves out their more, they need to bargain for more and in the end they will most likely get it. A lot of women are taken advantage of simply because they are women; they are not given everything they should be given because people do not think they deserve it or can handle it and that needs to change.
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