Sunday, December 13, 2009

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)

No comments:

Post a Comment