Blog #36

The “glass ceiling” is the idea that women are unlikely to make it to the top. The glass ceiling is still a problem, even though it is significantly less of a problem. Women are more experienced than in the past and are perfectly talented and capable of keeping up and competing with males colleagues. Women are still not in top leadership spots because they still want to have control over their lives and balance the other aspects of work. The top jobs mean that you have to be on call 24/7 and make the company the top priority over their own life. Differences between men and women in the workplace tend to get men promotions while women’s differences tend to be geared to their family life. Corporations often assume that women are not ambitious and they are not as willing to listen to their goals and needs. Many of the listeners on “Talk of the Nation” said that it is up to the woman’s personal choice whether or not they want to climb the cooperate ladder. One woman said that she has had the opportunity to climb that ladder but does not want that top position because she wants to be able to have time with her family. Other women decided to work more when their kids were younger so they could spend time with them when they are older. It was suggested that cooperation’s look at the different patterns that women choose and acknowledge those differences. I think that many of the opinions expressed on the issue were insightful and mostly correct. I do believe that ultimately it is the woman’s choice to spend more time with her family that ultimately causes the lack of leadership positions for women. If women made their work their top priority, like men, then there would definitely be more women in professional careers and in top positions. However, I think that corporate America can lure women back into the workforce if they offer more flexible opportunities to balancing their family lives so that they can also get top leadership positions in their firms.

Blog #35

The “Best Practices” article to promote work/family balance focuses on the additional responsibilities of employees who are additionally caregivers. Caregivers face many challenges when balancing the work and family life because they are not evenly distributed among the working population. This article points out that women are more dominant as caregivers and that minority women are the most dominant caregivers. The involvement of women in the workforce has increased dramatically and most layoffs have been those of men. As a result, women’s jobs are becoming more and more important to the family. The article stresses to employers that they should acknowledge these challenges and work with and understand a caregivers situation in order to create a better and more productive working environment for all. This article touches on the issues that we have covered in the readings and other course materials that discuss the hardships of balancing work and family life. It is important that articles like this continue to circulate in places of employment so that people who cannot easily relate to caregivers are provided with insight and will be more helpful and innovational in their business practices. This document does not require employers to take any action, but strongly suggests it, which is a huge benefit to caregivers. This article supports the issue that women are faced with more pressures than men in their careers because they also have to raise their families. While women have increased in the workforce, the pressures for them to raise children are still heavy in society.

Blog #33

Based on the readings and the materials provided, women attorneys have made large advancements in the legal field. Females make up half of law school graduates and are closing the gender gap in the male dominated field. Women have more freedom to express themselves through their style and femininity and are gradually becoming more and more equal. Women have gone through many steps to gain leadership in professional careers, such as completing a college education. Women still face a wide variety of challenges in the legal profession. They are criticized more by their colleagues because of gender stereotypes and biases. Women have a difficult time balancing work and family life. Another obstacle for women attorneys is having the same access to promotional opportunities as men. Men are still much more likely to become partners over women due to various reasons discussed in a previous blog. Minority women lawyers are the least commonly seen in the career field because of the discrimination and neglect that they feel in their firms. Diversity needs to be implemented into more firms because it will offer more profitability and creativity for the firm as a whole. Women have so much to bring to the table that goes overlooked, and it is our job to make sure that we strive to more equal work environments. Just because we think that work life is now equal between men and women, does not mean that it actually is, and the discrepancies should not be ignored. The “old boys network” that still exists needs to be exposed and done away with so that diversity can grow. While women have made astonishing progress in the legal career, there are still many challenges that need to be overcome.

Blog #32

Parenthood differs between men and women attorneys. One major example provided in “Gender on Trial” tells of an ideal that when a man has a child, he is pressured to earn more money and become more work harder. When a woman has a child she is expected to be a nurturing mother. A high-powered female attorney is viewed as a suspect parent because other people in the firm automatically assume that she must not be a good parent if she is so dedicated to her career. This type of woman faces hostility from both her male and female coworkers. Tradition values of motherhood impact women and the choices they make immensely because women are more likely to balance the family life than men. Not only does a working woman have to prove herself in her career, but she has to go home and prove herself as an “ideal” mother as well. Many women make choices to work part-time or stop working for an amount of time in order to meet their childrearing societal expectations. Some women prefer this lifestyle and others find it simply too difficult and stressful to balance both successfully. When women leave the workforce to raise their children, it affirms the long held stereotype that the proper place for women is at home. Employers are careful and wary when hiring women for these reasons. Colleagues also have different expectations of women attorneys with kids than those without kids or men. As younger people are entering the legal career, they have a difficult time with the realities of the difficulties in balancing both lives. Young women leave high pressure law firms for the sole reason that they look ahead and already do not see how they could possibly manage life. It is difficult for the female attorney to establish a rewarding balance between their career and life, but hopefully with the issue becoming more aware in law firms, it will change the situation and stereotypes for lawyers.

Blog #31

There is a huge problem of balancing work/home life in the legal profession. The legal profession is very demanding and time-consuming, and this negatively affects the relationships that lawyers have with their families. Many people feel that this issue is impossible to solve because it is so difficult to balance to two aspects. People who are the sole breadwinner of their families do not stress the issues that bother their children because they are too busy stressing about the financial issues. Many attorneys believe that having a family life negatively affects their work success. Women attorneys face these issues with much more force than male attorneys because they are traditionally viewed as the nurturing parent and homemaker. Women attorneys must make many sacrifices to balance their work/family lives and both suffer because of the struggle to stay on top of it all. Part-time schedules are one suggested solution that assists women in being attorneys and mothers. With a part-time schedule they can do their work on their own time and still fill the needs of their children. Women also need to be more upfront about their motherhood so that it is not seen as a negative in the law office. Younger attorneys are also more proudly announcing that they will take time off to be mothers and return to work as soon as they are ready and willing. Stereotypes that suggest that the man is the career parent while the woman is the homemaker should not be encouraged. Males get far less leeway to parent and men are typically less inclined to move to part-time positions to care for their families because of the stereotypes and the responsibilities of being the breadwinner. Reduced hours schedules should be available to both men and women who want to spend more time with their families. In the law career parenting is negative for both men and women which makes it extremely difficult for solutions geared toward balancing work/family life a possibility.

Blog #30

Conventional views of leadership styles disadvantage women and advantage men because most companies do not view women as leaders. More men are promoted into leadership positions due solely to their gender. In the video, “Shared Leadership: The Value Women Leaders Bring” mentions the fact that often the people who run corporations or politics are males and they feel more comfortable hiring people who look like them. In “Gender on Trial”, English writes that the default image of the lawyer as the leader is profoundly male and women are simply overlooked at times. Some women are also resistant to be the lone woman at the top of the ladder and are not interested in joining leadership ranks.

Gender expectations frame leadership behavior for men and women because men are expected to be the natural leaders. Men are always portrayed as leaders with women assisting them. Gender expectations lead men to be less empathetic leaders and less creative. Women bring different experiences to the table. In the “Shared Leadership” video, the woman talks about how women politicians bring an agenda of issues that have been neglected to the forefront and not necessarily just women’s rights issues. Women are also very successful in politics because they work well with other people and offer more support than their male colleagues. Gender expectations also affect women because one reason is that they feel it is difficult to establish informal relationships with their male peers and want to sidestep sexual overtones.

These expectations relate to stereotypes because men are the default leader in American society which automatically puts women in the more passive position next to them. Women worry about how they will be judged if they act or dress a certain way, and this effects their leadership opportunities because it limits those opportunities by not holding men to those same biases. Men face much less criticism and scrutiny in the law office because they are dominant which feeds into the stereotype that they make better leaders. In the videos it was proven that women are given less leadership positions despite their growth in certain fields such as law and politics. Half of law school graduates are women, yet only 5 percent of law firm partners are women, and even less than that are minority women. The stereotypes are a constant obstacle for women despite the advances and hard work they have put forth to achieve gender equality.

Both men and women have negative and positive leadership qualities, and a diverse group of leaders is the ideal situation for businesses. In the “Shared Leadership” video, we are told that corporations that had women in top leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies have a 34 percent higher profit than those corporations with no female leaders. Women bring different experiences and skills to the table through managing people, developing teams, and many other leadership roles. Women notice issues that men may overlook. A woman’s experiences also benefit her leadership responsibilities. While many men make great charismatic and confident leaders, they sometimes lack the insight that women provide. A diverse leadership team creates a creative, productive, and profitable work environment.

It is difficult for me to decide which leadership style I prefer more, that of a man or a woman. I have had many jobs and I have worked in a law firm directly under a male partner’s supervision as well as a female paralegal who was my “mentor” since I was a beginning paralegal. The paralegal was a great resource for me and she was usually always willing to help me but sometimes she would compete with me for absolutely no reason or throw me under the bus over a trivial mistake during an office meeting. She like to criticize my clothes and tell me what I could and could not wear. When I talked with an attorney about weekend activities briefly in the morning, she accused me of people getting the wrong impression about me and told me I had to stop talking to him. She made my work environment extremely awkward for me at times. The lawyer however treated me the same as anyone else in the office even though I did sometimes feel the uncomfortable pressures of his attempts at flirting. I prefer male leadership because they tend to treat you with a certain amount of expectation that you should fulfill and even if they are bossy or sometimes seem mean they do not purposely criticize the way you look as much as women leaders. I like women leaders though because they are usually more understanding of personal stresses outside of work and more willing to listen and understand if you cannot be in right on time or something like that. I think women are good leaders because they understand the work/life balance that people face and have an easier time relating to people. I also think women are more creative in their positions. My female professors usually give more interesting assignments with more room for creativity. I think it mostly depends on the person and how well-rounded they are. I have experienced good and bad leaders of both genders.

Blog #29

So few minority women stay with law firms because they face discrimination in the office. Fewer than one percent of partners are minority women. Minority women are exposed daily to harassment, discrimination, and exclusion. The NPR report involves the stories of black women who have tried to work in a law firm with no success because of the constant biases and stereotypes that they face. With the stress of the job and the added stress of being a minority in sex and skin color, it is often not worth it for these women to stay in their careers and sacrifice their times and morals to a career that does not fully respect or appreciate their work. The “good old boy” network that exists in most law firms prevents minority women from progressing in the law field. Most people are shocked when they see minority women come into a courtroom and have the power, and it takes a toll on these women. Minority women are also denied the same social and informational resources as other attorneys in the firm. The NPR reports and other course material is consistent with what is said in the book about minority women as attorneys. Women leave law firms for so many reasons and adding the minority race factor makes it even more of a struggle to survive among the white male majority of the partners and other associates that dominate the majority of firms. The culture of the firm is hugely important when it comes to minority employees and if the firm is committed to a diverse environment they will likely treat their minority employees with equal respect as the rest. It is truly awful and damaging to American society that minority women are not more prominent in the legal field because the stereotypes and inequalities discourage minority women to pursue this career path, reinforces these stereotypes, and prevents more diverse professional law firm environments.