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After reading the article by the NPR news, it seems as if a few of the reasons why so few minority women stay with law firms are because of exclusion, neglect and overt harassment. Other things include racist stereotypes, set to different standards, and ‘token’ stature at a firm. From the article, an Asian attorney states, “I had a managing partner call me into his office when I was a fourth-year [associate]. He introduced me to the client who was Korean and he tells him that I’m Koran, too. He says, ‘She eats kim chee, just like you.’ He said to me, ‘Talk to him.’ I looked at the client and said, ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sure you speak English better than I speak Korean.’ The client’s face was so red. Then the partner left a message on my internal message systems, and he was speaking gibberish, trying to sound like an Asian speaker. I called every partner on my floor and said, “You need to come and listen to his.’ I played that message 10 times. Ten times.” After I read this article, I was appalled. I cannot believe that people would really say these things in front of other people.


In the readings, reasons for minority women to leave the firm were kind of the same as the articles, but varied a little. One of the reasons they left was because of “battered woman syndrome” which was when the male attorney would talk the woman attorney up to everyone and then use them during the weekends and time you were suppose to have off. He would abuse people in the beginning, but give them good feedback in the end which led you to keep doing what you were doing. Another thing was that they would call them into meetings and conference calls where they had no purpose and just make them sit there. The things that seemed to keep minority women from staying in law firms in the book seemed to apply to all women and not just minority women, but either way, they are all pretty horrible things. The similarities seemed to be that no matter what the situation was, women were be degraded by the men and it was even happening in front of the clients.