Overlooked and Undervalued: Women in Private Law Practice

Abstract

This article examines the durability of gender inequality in private law practice since Kay & Gorman published their comprehensive review in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science in 2008. We begin with some of the changes in legal practice that intensified during the Great Recession and help to contextualize women's lack of progress. We turn next to a contemporary profile of women in private practice that demonstrates empirically where women stand. We look at some of the organizational mechanisms that seem to perpetuate inequality. The challenges of integrating work and family dominated the discussion of women's lack of progress in earlier reviews of women in the legal profession and continue to matter greatly. We assume the persistence of the challenges and instead focus on ways that the mechanisms or strategies for determining compensation systematically overlook and undervalue women's contributions. We consider the different social science frameworks that explain women as overlooked and undervalued for their contributions. We conclude with proposed suggestions for changes aimed at remedying the problems discussed here. 7.1

Gender Still Matters: Effects of Workplace Discrimination on Employment Schedules of Young Professionals

“…In comparison, our results show that men with children are significantly less likely to experience workplace discrimination and if they do, the effects do not cause a change in their work schedule. These results are consistent with existing research on standards and inferences about job competence between gender and parental role (Benard and Correll 2010;Fuegen et al 2004;Sterling and Reichman 2016;Thornton 2016).…”

“…While men and fathers are free to work long hours as often expected by employers (Thornton 2016), women are conflicted in having to make the "hard choices" (Jacobs and Gerson 2004). Employed mothers not conforming to the "appropriate" gender and parent role expectations find themselves being devalued as caretaker and in their performance and competence at work (Albiston 2007;Dowd 1989;Benard and Correll 2010;Sterling and Reichman 2016). When work is structured this way, women are confronted with gender (stereotypes) and role expectations that consequently influence their work schedule as well as their career progress.…”

“…A large body of U.S. contemporary research continues to document that women, compared to men, still face greater challenges in advancing their professional careers (Albiston 2007;Dau-Schmidt et al 2009;Epstein et al 1995;Kricheli-Katz 2012;Rhode 2011;Williams and Richardson 2010). While women in the U.S. have been entering law schools in equal proportions to men for almost 30 years, research finds evidence that women still have not made the same progress ascending to positions of leadership and partners as men (Epstein 1981;Rhode 2001;Rikleen 2015;Sterling and Reichman 2016). In fact, the percentage of women equity partners in the U.S. has only grown from 16 percent in 2006 to 18 percent today (Chen 2015;Rikleen 2015).…”

5 The Centrality of Soft Skills in Sustaining Masculine Ideals in Lawyers’ Career Progression in Finland and Quebec

“…You have to do lots of things like that that law firms think help you bring clients in. (Canadian,male,partner,41) Recruiting new businesses and clients has become more vital to firms since the 2008 recession (Sterling and Reichman 2016). Since then partnership in law firms has become less secure and increasingly dependent on an ongoing performance evaluation (Galanter and Henderson 2008).…”

Parental-leave policy for male lawyers in Helsinki and Montreal: cultural and professional barriers to male lawyers’ use of paternity and parental leaves

“…Contrary to common belief, becoming a partner does not decrease the performance pressure. Instead, the pressure of business development increases enormously, as it is one of the most crucial skills for lawyers promoted to equity partnerships (see Sterling and Reichman, 2016).…”