32: Advancing in the Law Part II

Parenthood when attached to women is an expected outcome for normal females. Women are intended to end up leaving work, at least for some period of time, and then her choices from then on determine how she's perceived in her community and in the workplace. If she goes back to work, she may want to downplay her work to appear a better mother in the workplace. On this same note, she could also choose to downplay her motherhood in order to appear stable in the workplace. One woman in Holly English's Gender on Trial attempted the latter: "'I sort of didn't tell anyone [at the law firm] until it was obvious that I was pregnant, which gave both the impression that I wasn't that excited and the impression that I was very torn about the consequences" (232). English found that, "This 'in the closet' approach... recognizes a stark fact: A woman's career stock plummets as her maternal stock skyrockets. Society applauds one moment and punishes int eh next, bringing the full force of tenacious stereotypes to bear on mothers in the workplace" (233). If a woman does not return to work, then she fulfills her stereotype as a woman in a law firm: a temporary, somewhat inconsequential occurrence.

Parenthood when attached to men is absolutely different. English explains, "The role of fatherhood has always meshed neatly with the image of the driven career man" (238). While women lose credibility as a worker upon having children, a man becoming a father adds more legitimacy to his career and generally does not affect his work habits. "If men are transformed when they become fathers, it is because they now carry the breadwinner mantle and are assumed to be more serious and committed to their work" (238). Women are expected to rely more on their husbands upon having children, and this makes working fathers stronger.