Blog #26

Males represent the majority of the lawyer population and as a result there are more male mentors than there are women. Because the legal field is one that is dominated by males, they play a huge rule in defining the rules, the code of conduct, the style of dress and furthermore the standards for being a respectable lawyer. When women lawyers enter the field and are being coached by a male attorney, the training, advice and opinions are those of man and a male perspective. As a result, the female attorney may not be receiving adequate mentoring and advice as the treatment of them is differently than man. In Holly English’s book, an interviewee made a note that when a male lawyer makes his case in court and is firm he is deemed to have done his job and is commended for it. However, when a female lawyer attempts to take the samp position and be firm, she is considered to be going against her gender expectations of being passive thus labeling her as something other than a good lawyer. Although there are excellent female lawyers as I know many of them, they are far fewer and therefore a new attorney is likely to be mentored by a male than a female. The advantages of having an experienced female lawyer assist another woman is that she understands what it is like to work in a gendered organization where a man has essentially made up the rules with only people like himself involved similar to the prison system where women were simply an afterthought. As a result of having men dominate the field, it will undoubtedly take time to break those gender barriers until they are equally as flexible for women because as we have learned gender neutral essentially translates into not feminine and when we think this is acceptable we are not doing enough to reach equality in the field as an attorney.