Blog #31

The problems facing professional women are the attempt to balance their profession, the home, and their children. The legal profession is very demanding particularly in private practice often requiring employees and partners to work hours in excess of forty per week thus making it difficult for working mothers to commit to those type f positions. As a result of having fewer women willing to sacrifice valuable time with their children, there are more men in those demanding positions. Women could however have more opportunity to work in the legal profession with ample possibilities for promotion and a higher salary. Some of the proposed solutions include: flexible work schedules, reduced hours, telecommuting, job shares and child care facilities within the organization. However, the problem with implanting said propositions involves opposition from the organization as it has been structured and its policies developed from a male perspective and as we well know, men are not expected to be willing to make professional sacrifices for their families and as a result their policies lack any flexibility. In addition, women who have the fortune of working reduced hours or another form of flexible schedule are not considered to be “real lawyers” as they lack the commitment and the willingness to put their job first. Other lawyers in the firm may resent those with flexible schedules due to familial obligations and that may further cause conflict in the workplace and therefore, law firms are less willing to offer flexibility that they might find themselves forced to offer to everyone else. Because our society expects that women exercise their inherited roles as mothers and wives, anything different or outside that scope is considered a choice. Furthermore, if we put forth more effort into building more family friendly organizations and structures, I think slowly we could accomplish change and policies that permit women to work and take care of their families might actually become a reality but it is absolutely necessary to promote a family friendly discourse.