In an article in the Ottawa Citizen today, it notes that if you run into a new lawyer on an Ottawa street today, the lawyer will likely be female (as 66% of new law school graduates are female) and if you run into a new mother, she will likely be over 30 (as 50% of births in Ontario last year were by women over 30). This is stated to be a sign that the world is “changing for the better”. This rather thinly researched article fails to point out that huge percentages of women leave the legal profession in the first 5 years of practice and the percentage of female partners in large law firms has barely risen in recent years.
A recent cultural phenomenon has arisen where girls are acheiving in increasingly higher levels than boys in school, yet the gender gap in pay, in executive positions in blue chip companies and in partnerships in professional service firms has been slow to close.
Why the disconnect?
My theory is that school rewards societal traditionally encouraged “girl” behaviours such as obeying the teachers instructions, listening carefully, generally being a good girl by conforming to external expectations etc etc.
The “real” or post-school world rewards societal traditionally encouraged male behaviours of taking risks, being assertive in seeking out what you want, being active in the pursuit of your needs, not passively obedient in the face of externalized rules.
The article gets it further wrong by breezily suggesting that flex hours and telecommuting will keep women satisfied in the profession. For female lawyers, the difficulties are more subtle and thus more damaging than external factors such as flexible work arrangements. Let’s face it: currently, in large full service firms, the majority of partners and leaders of blue chip client companies are middle aged men. While young women are supported and encouraged by words and official policies, in practice the large numbers of women who have left before must make senior partners somewhat wary of making a significant financial investment in training – not to mention that people feel subtlely more comfortable with people who they understand, who remind them of themselves. The feeling of “different” can certainly be overcome by merit and hard work – but the question is it worth years of grinding, working longer and harder, for a goal which may or may not even be desireable: the continued crushing hard work, increased responsibility and unbalanced lifestyle of a full service large firm partner – for compensation that provides financial rewards only as long as you keep on the treadmill.
I’m not anti big firm law. The opportunity to be trained in and to specialize and master specific areas of law, to be surrounded by bright, accomplished people, the financial security of sharing profit and risk, the prestige of being an integral part of a high quality organization – all of these are to be valued.
It’s up to each lawyer, male or female, to find the situation that is right for them. That said, simple platitudes that the world is getting better because more women are graduating from law school do nothing to shed light on the real realities female lawyers face in making these decision