Identify the organization initiatives that need to occur before work/life balance can be obtained and equity among men and women is gained in the legal profession. Critique and discuss English’s re-imagining the future.
Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
38: Status of Women in Law Part II
Select one profile from each of the following galleries “Women in the Judiciary” and “Women in the Practice of Law” that can be found at
http://library.law.columbia.edu/rise_of_women/index.html
Write about this lawyer and the significance of her contribution to the profession.
http://library.law.columbia.edu/rise_of_women/index.html
Write about this lawyer and the significance of her contribution to the profession.
37: Status of Women in Law Part I
Read the following report, Charting Our Progress, by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. Write a blog that compares and contrasts English’s findings and recommendation with the report.
http://www.abanet.org/women/ChartingOurProgress.pdf
Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.
http://www.abanet.org/women/ChartingOurProgress.pdf
Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.
35: Balancing Family & Law Career Part III
In the Talk of the Nation story in course materials, the glass ceiling was explored. The question that dominated the discussion was: Can corporate America lure the women back into the workforce? What do you think?
Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.
Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.
35: Balancing Family & Law Career Part II
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission set out a list of recommendations for employers to consider in order to promote work-family balance. The document acknowledges that it reflects "both the increasing challenges faced by employees with caregiving responsibilities, and the low likelihood of successfully addressing such problems through mere compliance with existing law." To really assist in garnering a healthy work-life balance, businesses must do more than just the bare minimum required by legislation, including "thinking broadly about the ways in which family-friendly workplace policies can improve workers' ability to balance caregiving responsibilities with work."
A caregiver may be embodied as a parent, or one caring for an aging parent or relatives with disabilities, according to the EEOC. The trait shared by all of these caregivers is that "in addition to doing paid work, [they] are also engaged in significant caregiving outside of the workplace." An interesting and important note made in the recommendations is that women are by far the most likely to be the said caregiver in a situation. While men have taken on increased roles in parenting and caregiving, women still dominate. Simultaneously, "women's workforce participation has dramatically increased," meaning that women are taking on more responsibility than even before, and due to the recession, where mainly men's jobs were lost, their wages are more crucial than ever.
A caregiver may be embodied as a parent, or one caring for an aging parent or relatives with disabilities, according to the EEOC. The trait shared by all of these caregivers is that "in addition to doing paid work, [they] are also engaged in significant caregiving outside of the workplace." An interesting and important note made in the recommendations is that women are by far the most likely to be the said caregiver in a situation. While men have taken on increased roles in parenting and caregiving, women still dominate. Simultaneously, "women's workforce participation has dramatically increased," meaning that women are taking on more responsibility than even before, and due to the recession, where mainly men's jobs were lost, their wages are more crucial than ever.
34: Balancing Family & Law Career Part I
Joan Williams is a law professor at the University of California Hastings Law School. She is the author of Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It (Oxford University Press, 2000). Williams defines "unbending gender":
Williams, an expert in work-family balance issues, spoke on the "Working Moms" panel, and her main contention was that this work-family conflict is evident at all socioeconomic levels. Williams asserted that women in the lowest income category have the most difficult of times in balancing work and family, since their jobs are the least flexible with non-standard hours, unstable child care and often sick children. Next on the ladder is the group Williams calls the Professional Managerial class. This group has husbands working long hours, which force the mothers to bring up the children and leave their jobs. These women are likely to be working part-time jobs, and be the primary caretakers for their children, and they are generally very conflicted when it comes to their family and work. The Missing Middle are the group that have pink and blue collar jobs, with little flexibility. Generally these people use the childcare tactic of "tag-teaming," where one will work one shift while the other takes the kids, then they switch. This group has a large divorce rate largely because the couples never see each other.
"The term "unbending gender" refers to two different trends. The first is that, to date, gender roles in this country have been unbending and unyielding; there has been a lot less change than we had hoped for 20 or 30 years ago. The second is that, to the (significant) extent that things have changed, changes have been achieved not by moving towards androgyny, but by widening out the range of socially acceptable masculinities and femininities-preserving "la difference" between men and women."
Williams, an expert in work-family balance issues, spoke on the "Working Moms" panel, and her main contention was that this work-family conflict is evident at all socioeconomic levels. Williams asserted that women in the lowest income category have the most difficult of times in balancing work and family, since their jobs are the least flexible with non-standard hours, unstable child care and often sick children. Next on the ladder is the group Williams calls the Professional Managerial class. This group has husbands working long hours, which force the mothers to bring up the children and leave their jobs. These women are likely to be working part-time jobs, and be the primary caretakers for their children, and they are generally very conflicted when it comes to their family and work. The Missing Middle are the group that have pink and blue collar jobs, with little flexibility. Generally these people use the childcare tactic of "tag-teaming," where one will work one shift while the other takes the kids, then they switch. This group has a large divorce rate largely because the couples never see each other.
33: Advancinc in the Law Part III
The advancement of women in the legal profession is undeniable. Two women currently sit on the Supreme Court. According to a study done by the National Association of Women Lawyers, women are graduating from law schools and starting careers at about the same rate as men. Additionally, a greater rate of female law school grads are promoted to the role of equity partner.
The issues come in the lack of women in leadership positions at their firms. According to the NAWL, there wer less than 16% of comen who hold the position of equity partner, and "only about 6% of law firms report that they have a woman in the highest leadership position of managing partner." Minority women still lag behind in advancement. NAWL found that there is a "greater difficulty that women of color face in moving up the law firm ranks, compared to white lawyers or male lawyers of color."
Despite the greater rate of being promoted to higher positions, like equity partner, women are promoted to the rank of equity partner at only about half the rate as men, according to the NAWL report. The ultimate kicker is an age-old problem: men still make more money than women do, in every level of law.
The issues come in the lack of women in leadership positions at their firms. According to the NAWL, there wer less than 16% of comen who hold the position of equity partner, and "only about 6% of law firms report that they have a woman in the highest leadership position of managing partner." Minority women still lag behind in advancement. NAWL found that there is a "greater difficulty that women of color face in moving up the law firm ranks, compared to white lawyers or male lawyers of color."
Despite the greater rate of being promoted to higher positions, like equity partner, women are promoted to the rank of equity partner at only about half the rate as men, according to the NAWL report. The ultimate kicker is an age-old problem: men still make more money than women do, in every level of law.
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