Unit D - Blog #38

Myra Bradwell effected the very beginnings of women as lawyers. She discussed and studied law with her husband in 1869 and passed the Chicago Bar Exam later that year. She applied for a license but was denied. She took it to the Supreme Court of Illinois where they upheld the decisions saying, "The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many occupations of civil life....The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign office of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator." [83 U.S. 130 at 141]. She appealed and they overruled this decision making her one of only five women lawyers in the U.S. in the 1970 census. She started The Chicago Legal News which did really well. This kind of a woman broke all conventional rules especially for the era she lived in. By overturning the ridiculous first ruling, women were able to break free from the sanctity of marriage confining a woman to only feminine roles. While it did not end the ideas and practices of women carrying out only womanly roles, it was a major step in setting precedence for future rule breaking women to come.

Unit D - Blog #37

Women's progress as of 2003 showed increase numbers across the board in law firms, court appointments, professors at law schools, and in Fortune 500 companies. However even though the numbers increased, they are still so low. Fortune 500 companies now compromises of 15% women as compared to 6%. But still. Women are half the population and only 15% of major companies have women in high offices. In the supreme court it is 22%. Judges that interpret the law are made up on mostly men allowing for our laws to be male dominated, no wonder we cannot enact change. Women are now at 76% of a man's pay as compared to 73%. I wonder why there is even a gap in the first place. If a woman and man go through the same schooling and have the same experience there is logically no reason why their pay would be any different. And this happens in law firms in major cities, not rural areas. Discrimination suits are still filed in law practices for women being sexually harassed or paid less. This only reinforces the stereotypes of women lawyers who are found to be bitchy, emotional, or not as aggressive in the courtroom. Men see these as weaknesses even though if the woman is aggressive she becomes bitchy. The same qualities that we look for in a male lawyer are seen as bad in a female lawyer. But is she is not aggressive then she is weak leading to a double bind.

Unit D - Blog #36

Corporate America will only be able to lure women back into the workforce if it changes its policies. Women do not want to be treated as less of a worker because they are female. They need care giving options if they are mothers and there is nothing wrong with that. You want women in your company? Find a way to help her with the children. Women are also more increasingly aware of pay rates and if there is a difference between theirs' and a man's, they are not going to want to work for that company. Women will also want to see other women in leadership positions so that they know there is upward mobility available to them. Women bosses will provide hope and encouragement to new incoming women employees. Do I think that the corporate world will change this? If they really want women back in their fields, and they should, they will slowly start to bend their policies and make room for women. Women play intricate roles in the corporate world, sharing insights and views that men may never see. These women are smart and talented but feel jaded by companies. These companies need to recognize a woman and/or a mother as who she is but not treat her as handicapped because of her gender. This especially applies to mothers. Women with children need the same consideration in promotions as other women. If corporate world does not change its patriarchal structure, they will be hard pressed to integrate women into their labor force ever again.

Unit D - Blog #35

EEOC promotes practices that would encourage men to work in more family work situations. It also talks about the strong overlap between women's rights and caregiver rights. Both of these issues need to be addressed since disproportionately women are the dominant caregivers. But because they are women they have always been paid less even though job is becoming more critical in our society. In order to change this, we must work for better pay for these women and these positions so that they are earning what they deserve. Men should be encouraged to participate as well and should take on family roles if the woman in the household works outside these roles. While it would be very difficult to pass actual laws about these changes, smaller legislation within states can occur in order to change the way things are going right now.

Unit D - Blog #34

Joan Williams' book, Unbending Gender, talks about the unyielding family roles that continue to persist in our culture. There are two realms of work for her, outside work and family work. Outside work is a job or career that pays for your time while family family work includes child care, taking care of elderly, or the sick. She argues that women disproportionately are in charge of family care work even when they hold jobs themselves. If a woman is a stay at home mom, she feels devalued almost as if society finds her useless and unwanted. But then when a woman goes to work, we want her to stay home. Working women still carry out family work roles which leads to a society where males are expected to do outside work and little to no family work. This type of society is hurting children in the process because mothers are overworked or feel undervalued and fathers continue a track of not helping in the family work arena. While Williams suggest legislation to help assist in paid leave and childcare, she is more concerned about how society views family life as a whole. She believes that is the true crux of the problem. Unless we change our ways of thinking, there is no way to change the actual problem. Overall women must take less of the family work and men must start participating in it.

Unit D - Blog #33

Even though most of these blogs have been about doom and gloom and portray a lot of negative impacts that occur to women lawyers, there are some advancements that have occurred recently for women in offices. With the media attention on Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton in 2007 the world was exposed to two high powered female leaders. It also gave the world two distinctly different female leaders. You had a conservative, mother in Sarah Palin and a liberal, former first lady in Hillary Clinton. Both advocated for very different morals and ideas but were not afraid to stand up with the men and talk politics. Both were of course analyzed over and over again for being a woman instead of analyzed for what they stood for as a politician. Hillary Clinton then obtained a high ranking cabinet position in Obama's administration. The majority House leader is also a woman showing society that it is time for change. Women are staying at law firms for longer periods of time (except minority women) showing that they are persevering though the man's world and maybe even changing some firms' minds about how women operate. They still face challenges of being promoted and being stereotyped but hopefully more leadership roles will discourage this way of thinking. If women who are in high leadership roles stayed away from interviews about their makeup and wardrobe I think it would benefit women as a whole because we could see that they truly care about their positions and it does not matter what shade of red you wear when you are running for office.

Unit D - Blog #32

Female lawyers who are mothers versus male lawyers who are fathers have very different roles in the work place and at home traditionally. Most male lawyers have wives at home that can afford to stay with the kids while dad is at work. Mother lawyers have husbands that generally work other careers or do not desire to be a stay at home dad. When a male lawyer says he has kids no one questions the amount of hours he works or does not spend with his own children. When a female lawyer says she had kids people want to know if she misses them all the time and who takes care of them. These women are under attack as opposed to males who are supported by others to go to work and provide for the family. Because traditional roles mandate that a mother be with her child as much as possible, many female lawyers experience guilt and higher stress levels because they are missing time with their child. They start to feel like they are bad mothers for choosing a career over their children. High powered female lawyers experience this on an even higher level. They are viewed as being deficient as a mother and therefore are under much scrutiny if anything ever happens to the child. To society this woman has chosen to abandon her child in order to gain success. A man in this situation would be considered to be "providing for his family" at that status. Women who work hard in their careers are always associated automatically as being unfit mothers though.

Unit D - Blog #31

The legal profession has as many difficulties as any other profession when it comes to child care. In their cases though they always have long extended hours. Many childcare options are not available for this kind of time. Childcare centers are generally open nine to five and do not offer later hours. If relatives are helping out, many times they will have other family obligations, part time jobs, errands, etc and will not be able to help on a twelve hour day. Some solutions proposed are allowing lawyers to work from home. This is difficult however even with all the technology available because working from home does not provide immediate access to people within the law firm or files that are stored there. It also risks compromising a case if a lawyer is a mother and she is being distracted from her real job. This may lead to prolonged cases because it will take longer to research and prepare. Another solution is to offer daycare at the firm but there is just no institution out there like that. Their hours would have to be long as well and spending that much time in a daycare can be harmful to a young child. Plus any daycare working in a law firm would have to be super worried about the liabilities. That is the last place any caretaker would want to work. Even when children enter school, there are few after school programs that last very long. This all effects the dynamic family structure because either dads or relatives or babysitters start to take a larger role in the children's lives.

Unit D - Blog #29

Few minority women stay with law firms because they are treated as minorities for case assignments. What I mean by this is that minorities are generally matched up with minority cases because firms believe that women lawyers will better relate to women cases of their own race. This may be true but what also happens is that these women are then seen as NOT being able to relate to other people that are not the same race or gender. This leads to a selective amount of cases for minority women and they are unable to advance their careers and therefore leave their jobs. The stories of NPR reflect the frustration that former women layers have with firms and the legal system as a whole. We are supposed to be living in an equal society but instead women are being chastised for who they are as females and then divided by race stereotypes. All the women definitely agreed that they were being assigned to cases that were for them as designated by their firms who were headed by white males. Some of them carried a lot of resentment towards their former employers and how the system works. Some of them almost agreed that with their employers saying that they understood why they were being assigned the cases they were. They left because they knew this type of practice would continue but they were not as resentful maybe because as women they believe their role to be subservient to male bosses.

Unit D - Blog #28

Sonia Sotomayor was characterized as a "fiery Latina woman" from the beginning of the murmurs that she may be nominated for the Supreme Court by Barack Obama. This is a common stereotype of Latina woman by the media for years. Latina women are very quick to anger and run households with an iron fist. Due to this Sotomayor's character as a judge was asserted to be very temperamental and "bitchy" and somewhat of a bully on the second circuit bench that she currently worked for. Her competence was overridden by her strong emotions that she had. Even though she was a Princeton and Yale graduate who graduated with honors, that was all taken away by her bad temper. Our 42nd and 43rd president, George W. Bush graduated from Yale with straight C's. When he was first nominated no one insulted his intelligence. Of course it became a joke later once he was seen making speeches with unknown words. Sotomayor on the other hand has been articulate and precise in her speeches and is clearly a learned student of the law. But her temperament becomes the focus on the media instead of her record as a judge. One reporter who critiqued her even admitted, "I haven't read enough of Sotomayor's opinions to have a confident sense of them, nor have I talked to enough of Sotomayor's detractors and supporters, to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths." Instead anonymous sources were used and PUBLISHED. Even when the article was called out for being spineless, the newspaper never apologized or made corrections to some of the quotes that were cropped to make Sotomayor look bad. This sends a clear message that the media was definitely villainizing her to Americans because she was a female Latina. Her actual accomplishments were always downplayed, even though if a man had those same qualifications he wold be glorified for it.

Unit D -Blog #27

Due to the fact that men are favored in the legal profession, they are able to obtain better internships which lead to better careers and a fast track to promotion. This allows for them to become more knowledgeable quicker that a female lawyer. Because of this women are purposely left behind and are not able to work their way as quickly up the ladder as a male colleague. Women therefore receive less vital cases which only hinders their experience as a lawyer. Because they are never given the opportunity to expand their knowledge, they are never able to progress in their careers. Women therefore become less adequate for certain cases allowing for men to continue their dominance in the field. Male lawyers will use this to their advantage against many female lawyers when trying to win cases. They may point to her history in the field pointing out a lack of cases as compared to himself. He may also use her education as a weapon against her, pointing out more knowledge from his extensive research in a particular field. Because women are also able to network less in the law arena, they have less contacts to rely on who are well known. This may also work to a male lawyer's advantage because he may be able to receive more guidance and information on a case because he had the opportunity to network with people in higher positions. Knowing people is always a huge advantage in any field, but in particular the law field. Male lawyers may have worked with the same judges before and therefore know their style and behavior better. This is because males will receive more cases than women. This again can hurt a woman's opportunity in winning a case.

Unit D - Blog #26

Women are assisted by men in almost all cases of law. This is because many firms will not allow women to work on cases alone or with only other women. This practice places gender roles on the law because it insinuates that the law must have a male present in it to oversee the process. This goes back to classical republican thinkers where there are two spheres that exist in the world- the house and the political arena. Women belonged in the sphere of the home, taking care of expenses, cleaning and the children and men belonged in politics, making laws and ascribing how the rest of society should act and behave. This has been seen in the law process in the U.S. for many years. "Man" is the word used to describe men and women throughout the U.S. Constitution. At law firms the men are taking women as interns almost as if they need guidance from a man because he will know what is best for the woman to do. Examples of this include assigning a female intern to a case with a male as a leader. Women lawyers are also not promoted as quickly due to this because they are viewed as not being able to handle their own course loads. Women are also not likely to be partners in the firm, but if they are it is always with another male figure. This allows for men to be deciding the interpretation of law more often and thus excludes half of the world's population from getting their views across as a woman.

Unit D - Blog #25

Using sexualized behavior as a lawyer may have pros and cons to it. On one hand, it may allow a person to get his or her way around the office. Being a woman, if you want certain cases, you may make claims that a woman can better handle the situation. Males can use their dominance in an office to take cases away because they are seen as being "in charge." In court, a woman lawyer may better appeal to a jury of women depending on the circumstance. Male juries may feel more comfortable being told the evidence by male lawyers. The cons, in my opinion, far outweigh the pros though. Using your gender as a weapon only perpetuates the cycle of gender biases. Around the office, men will lose respect for women who use their "female-ness" to get their way and women will be annoyed by men who think they are the "masters." In the court of law, if the everyday American witnesses the use of women and men as a tool, even if it is only subconsciously that they make this connection, they are going to associate this with the rest of the world. This strategy is presented by the media as being negative especially for women. Media will blast women for using this tool even though in many cases lawyers are told by their firms to behave in this manner. Liberal media will also point out how it is a step backwards for women. Feminists will argue that the only way women can break free from gender roles is by eliminating acts such as these.

Unit D - Blog #24

When I talked to my cousin Terri who was a former lawyer, I asked her a lot about the expectations were in her office because she was a woman. She told me that as an intern starting out she was doing a lot of woman based secretarial errands such as making coffee, copying papers, and getting the lunch orders for the day. She commented that the male interns were usually not assigned these duties. Once she earned rank she commented that cases were subject to gendered roles. She received a lot of child cases because women around the office were seen as motherly and better able to handle the distraught parents. Big, important cases that involved corporations and billions of dollars were given to men. While her interest lie in family court, she knew a lot of female lawyers who worked solely in tax court with businesses that would be much more useful in these big cases. As a law student, she said that women were always expected to read but not called on for answers as much. They were to know the details while the male students were to understand the big picture and were much more likely to be called on and used as an example. When asked about her fashion choices she said that it was just assumed you never wore anything flattering or bright because older women students and faculty would look down on you and no professor would take you seriously. From the get-go fashion was denied as an aspect in a woman lawyer's life.

Unit D - Blog #23

Many female lawyers and politicians struggle with the images that are portrayed by the media due to their fashion. Notably, Hillary Clinton has for years been an icon/source of entertainment for the media. She is known for wearing women's pants suits which are the closest resemblance of a man's suit for professional women to wear. These pant suits generally are matching colors with loose fitting pants, a blazer with little shape and worn with a neutral low colored heel. The media has over and over again blasted Clinton for her style because it takes away from her femininity. But once a woman does wear more feminine clothes, she looses some of her credibility or respect. Let's take a look at Clinton's counterpart, Sarah Palin.

Palin had a more feminine edge to her style with a more Jackie-O appearance. She had longer hair which created a more feminist view of her style. Media started paying attention to her clothes more than who she actually was. Magazines ran specials on her favorite lipstick shade. Instead of focusing on her political views, we were worried about her face washing routines. This is an example of how dressing in more flattering clothes labels you as unprofessional. This is a double bind for women lawyers and politicians. If you dress in suits, you are labeled as not womanly. If you dress like a woman, you are not taken seriously.


SOURCES: http://dc.about.com/od/photosofmuseums/ss/MTussaudsPics_4.htm,
http://www.barking-moonbat.com/images/uploads/sarah-palin-tina-f_1009438c.jpg

Unit D - Blog #22

Sonia Sotomayor has been critiqued from the beginning of her induction into the media realm. Because she is a woman and a Latina, the press deemed those traits as having effect on her personality as a judge. In news stations, cable programs, radio talk shows, and newspapers critics raved about her as being a "reverse" racist. Conservative outlets believed her race would effect her decisions as a judge because she would advocate for minorities simply because of their background. They also attacked her for the following statement: "All of the legal defense funds out there, they are looking for people with court of appeals experience because the court of appeals is where policy is made," she said, laughing a bit through the next part: "And I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law. I know. Okay, I know. I'm not promoting it. I'm not advocating it. I know." Conservatives ranted that nominating Sotomayor would be allowing a woman to make her own policy as she saw fit since that was her view on judgeship. Many liberals backed her up claiming it is actually true since Congress may make laws, but courts interpret it, hence making policy. Liberal media hailed her as refreshing and showed evidence that minority groups outside of Latinos were also excited for her nomination. An AUL gay activist said, ""Nobody wanted to talk to the queer person at that time," said Ettelbrick, who represented Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. "She was the only one [on the advisory committee] who made a point to come over and introduce herself. She was totally interested [in gay civil rights issues] and supportive." The liberal media even used her race to support her though saying, "To Hispanics, the nomination would be an absolutely historic landmark. It really is impossible to overstate its significance. The achievement of a lifetime appointment at the absolute highest levels of the government is a profound event for that community, which in turn is a vital electoral group now and in the future." For conservatives,Sotomayors race and gender were binding problems, but to liberals she was a marketable minority.
SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/sonia-sotomayor-supreme-c_n_194470.html