Prejudice against Female Lawyers
It happens in every profession, but perhaps there is more discrimination against women in the legal industry, news that is corroborated by the study conducted by the National Association of Women Lawyers and the NAWL Foundation – 46 percent of the nation’s top 200 law firms do not have women among their top ten attorneys, 32 percent have just one women in the ten and a meager 6 percent of law firms have women managing partners.
Besides this, women partners are paid a median of $81,000 less than their male counterparts in firms where women on top are unheard of, and $11,000 less in firms where there are three or four among the top 10 attorneys in the firm. In most firms, women form nearly half of first and second year associates. But as the years go by, their numbers dwindle. Most women lawyers were employed as counsel, only 27 percent were non-equity partners, and only 16 percent were equity partners.
Why does this prejudice exist? Is it because people prefer to deal with male lawyers? Or is it because women are perceived as the weaker gender? Or are women seen as less likely to be business-like and effective? The survey goes on to reveal more horrendous facts – during the recent recession, more women lawyers were laid off than men, especially those who worked part-time. Apparently, women attorneys are more expendable than their male counterparts.
Not only do women lawyers to put up with discrimination from their own ilk, they have to deal with prejudice from female jurors as well, especially if they’re good looking and successful and the jurors are low in self confidence. The power of being a part of the jury goes to their heads at times and they feel that they must vote against the female lawyer, irrespective of what her client has or has not done, simply to put her in her place and claim victory for all womankind who do not look as good as she does or are as successful as she is.
The bias has got to stop, or we will only end up losing some of the best brains in the business. The day women are treated equal to men, the day we find that there is no discrimination between the sexes in any profession, that’s the day we can safely say that women’s liberation is here to stay.