Blog #37

The American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession reportedly has found that women have made progress in terms of overcoming some discriminatory challenges in the work place however; some existing barriers still remain due to a lack of the promotion of work and home balance. Although the representation of women in law school, in private firm jobs and in major corporations is encouraging, women are still experiencing challenges taking their education to take on roles of leadership. And it’s not their lack of academic accomplishment that is holding them back, it is their gender and the roles associated with it. As a result, there is still an existing underrepresentation of women in major law firms, Fortune 500 companies, and the federal judiciary where pay tends to be higher than in the local government sector. I work at the federal court and only three women hold the prestigious position of a district judge (appointed by the president). More interestingly, a woman in the Arizona district is yet to be named chief judge. Another aspect of interest is that out of the three women I am only aware of one that has children thus reinforcing the notion that if women want to get ahead in the professional world, they need to overlook their desire to be mothers as that role can potentially be a burden to career advancement.
I found that the report also states that women lawyers report being viewed as overly aggressive or uncomfortably forthright and based on Holly English’s accounts, this is due in part because a woman attorney is stepping outside of her gender role (as perceived) and attempting to do a man’s job. For the past president of the California bar to have testified and said on the record as recent as 2003 that women were “too emotional or too aggressive” puts into perspective how gendered the employment structure really is. It also identifies how much work is yet to be done so that the male gaze can cease to focus on the qualities that actually make us special.