Blog 39

English talks about equality and reorganizing for the future. Work and balance can be obtained by providing a new starting point for debate and dialogue, to expand the gender-issues focus from solely about women to all lawyers, men and women alike, and to articulate a vision for the future, one that emphasizes everyone's concerns and deals with concepts rather than stark numbers, favoring personality and skills over gender. I think that this brings up an issue. The stark number are staggering in regards to the statistics that there are so many qualified women in the work force, but they are extremely underrepresented. personality and skills are usually already there, so this suggestion means 2 things; women don't have personality and stills, or they are just not being hired because of their gender. There needs to be a change to the "qualifications" of hiring for the future because the stark numbers are just not showing equality.

Blog 38

Dorothy Frooks was an incredible lawyer in her time. She was a veteran of world war 1 and 2, for both the army and navy. She worked as a writer for the New York Evening World and published the Murray Hill News in 1952. She also wrote a pamphlet, entitled Labor Courts Outlaw Strikes, calling for the establishment of a labor court. She was well known for she social and political activism. Frooks established free legal clinics, and she lobbied to set up small claims courts. Frooks died in 1997 at the age of 101.

Blog 37

Charting Our Progress finds that women are gaining incremental success, within major areas. There are more women in more positions. There are more suggestions to making the law field more family friendly, and more women friendly. English also suggests that there needs to be organizational initiatives implemented so that there can be equality. Also there needs to be system solutions, when there needs to be more regular performance reviews, mentoring systems, work assignments, flexible work arrangements, and measurements for success. This will help assert a better system for equality with the law profession.

Blog 36

Corporate America is making weak attempts to lure women into the work force. It has been shown that more women diverse companies are making more money, and are more successful. But this weak attempt is not showing more women in higher positions. Also, there are more and more balance issues, and the higher positions have more tipping issues. Then when the women who are having families are not eying these higher positions due to time constraints. The attempt of corporate America is not really working.
These weak attempts to get women in higher positions is a deeply rooted problem. The higher jobs have been formed for males, with total disregard for balancing work with a family. But there are brighter areas where women can break through the glass ceiling, but the corporation needs to recognize that more diversified companies, employing more women in higher positions are more successful.

Blog 35

Really, just coming out now with a recommendation to promote work and family balance? Oh right, a while ago women were stay at home mothers, not needing these suggestions. As Americans, we are placing high value on money making, and not the richness of family. It is crazy to think that we have been neglecting our children so much that they are making these recommendations. There has always been an enqual work issue when it comes to women, most of the time they are children s care givers. The suggestions were, "These care giving responsibilities are not distributed evenly across the working population. As the EEOC's best practices document notes, the care of children and other dependents is disproportionately provided by women, and even more disproportionately by women of color. Men's role in parenting and other caregiving has increased, but is still vastly outweighed by women's. At the same time, women's workforce participation has dramatically increased, so that women account today for 46 percent of the workforce, and women's earnings are increasingly important".
So women are making up 46% and still now receiving equal pay, and they are also taking care of the children, with out a lot of help. Can we pay women equally please? Or maybe we can come up with a free child care system that help with the labor load women are experiencing. Or the fathers of the family need to step up and help balance the scales. And now there are more layoffs happening to men, women are strained more than ever, but if the father is home out of work, maybe they can watch children, and help balance out the scales.

Blog 34

Joan William's book was about the sexual stereotypes about who should do what kinds of work, it not only perpetuates a wage discrepancy, but also mess up any feelings of productive work experiences which detracts from family life. This book says to overcome this problem, we must implement progressive work policies, so society can change work into a more pleasurable and profitable experience, but also leaving more time for the family.
English discusses many issues related to work and life balance. Some lawyers are trying to obtain a part time schedule, and it's just not working. They are not valued as part time workers, and working part time effects their advancement. This working of less hours sometimes puts a kink in other peoples schedules. There are also a lot of other issues trying to create a flexible schedule. Women are trying to gain respect, but in the law work place, working less hours will not gain you the respect you want.
In terms of women working, it was said that women some times to not have their heart and soul at work, but also says that if they have something to look forward to at the end of the day, they work more efficiently and diligently. Mothers do no need to give up their law careers, but the family definitely suffers.
The working mother needs a few factors going on in her situation. If the have a significant other they have to trade duties to balance out family life. And now younger men are demanding time off to spend with their families. In Joan's book, there is progressive movements which need to be established in work structures, which is somewhat happening in English's' writings. But overall i think that the law realm is an oversturctured good ole boys club, and certain firms are inflexible to different schedules that are requested.

Blog 33

The glass ceiling has been crack, not yet shattered. There are now so many different opportunities that women have now, and are taking. We have had women run for president and vice president. We have another female supreme court justice, and an awesome fist lady, who has great ideas. We are now making more female hires with in larger companies, and researchers are now starting to realize that women are able to positively impact profits and performance of them selves and the employees effected by them. Women are recognized now for their hard work ethic and the large amount of work they have in every day life, from mother to lawyer to politician, etc. There will always be challenges to overcome. Women are still discriminated against, and are still not receiving equal pay to their male counterparts as well as being passed up for promotions because of their gender. But now, women are accounting for more than half of the people getting or attaining a college undergraduate degree, and almost there for receiving PhD degrees. Overall, women in the law field still have work to do to gain equality, but they are making people take nothic to what we are still experiencing. There are imputting woman's iniutives in law firms, and passing laws for woman's rights.

Blog 32

Being a lawyer is so time consuming, so is being a parent, and so is being a parent to multiple children. There is an assumption we make, and it is that women do most of the mothering in the family, a lot of child up keep and maintenance. In regards to male parents they are generally there for the children, but do not carry out most of the nurturing duties. Lawyer mothers are assumed to have their children in some sort of child care arrangement. While men lawyers usually have their children at home with their stay at home mothers. Both lawyer parties are still parents, but there is usually a lock of attention when dealing with children. Traditional values of motherhood like staying home with the children, cooking, cleaning, etc are impacted by being a lawyer because the profession is time consuming. There is usually a lot of child care arrangements involved, and certain emotions lawyers have a hard time getting in touch with. Also a lot of the parenting responsible rests on the moms shoulders. High-powered female lawyers with children viewed as suspect parents because probably the lack of time the parent can spend with the child. I don't want to say neglect, but the parent always has limited time. Overall there is depends on the choice of the child's parent to decide what would be the care plan for the child.

Blog 31

First and foremost, the legal profession is very time consuming. From long times put into school, which is about 8 years total to become a lawyer, long time spent preparing, and a lot of time spent in the office. The are a lot of people, both men and women who shy away from the profession because they want to devote all of their time and energy into their families. But for the legal professional who has a family, it is had to find and maintain a balance between work and family. Especially for women, who usually bare most of the family burden, if you want to call it that, have a lack of time. With women usually doing the juggling act, there is usually something being deprived. There is usually an institution who suffers from this balancing act, and most of the time, it is not the career.
There has been attempts to a happy medium for these legal professionals to maintain a good family life. Earlier on, law firms, or companies just usually offered a couple weeks vacation and some sick days, if you were lucky, maybe a personal day or 2. Now companies are trying to get with the times, and offer an in house baby sitting facility of the companies location. Some companies offer this free of charge, but there is usually some sort of cost attached. Certain companies offer child care, but it does not come paid for. Also companies are trying to enable employees to work from home a couple days a week. Or allowing different schedule options, like working four days of ten hours, or work 9 days out of a 10 day working cycle. And a lot of companies pay for health insurance for employees dependents. A lot of these practices are common, but for some companies, harder to implement because of cost constraints and employee performance.

Blog 30

Women are very disadvantaged when it comes to leadership.Conventional views about leadership styles disadvantage women by still keeping the traditional stereotypes labeled to them. Women are often characterized as nurturing beings, motherly, and emotional. These women are held back because the expectations of their stereotypes. Men, on the other hand, stereotypically have a more aggressive style, more bossing around employees, and tend to be less emotional. When women try to be authoritative it likely is not well accepted because of the expected nurturing, motherly stereotype women have.
When there are more women represented in higher positions in a company, usually a company has a better/higher profit margin, than companies with lower rates of women in higher positions. Also there tends to be a higher rate of performance with more women in the ranks of a company. Women tend to have more creative management styles, using different techniques, and also having a better listening ability. So when a women is in a leadership position, they usually embody certain or select stereotypes, and combine different techniques for a better, more effective leadership style. Male leadership is idea for more male employees. The are aggressive and less nurturing, making it easy to communicate with other men. Women try to lead in a more gentler manner, maybe even nicer. If men and women combined techniques, they could be able to get things done quicker, more efficiently, with emotionally happier employees.
Overall, shared leadership is most effective in businesses. Shared leadership is where there are more women in higher ranks in larger companies. With women in the ranks, there is reported higher profits, and higher performance. Women can be found to have more creative leadership techniques, which in-turns makes employees more willing to work and more effective. It also gives women more job place opportunities. In the movie, the women said that if there were 30% of women in ranking positions, there would be more of a likelihood of your business to succeeded.
I though it was funny when the videos addressed the disparity of women in ranking positions. There are 16% women holding leadership positions in government, and one digit percents of women holding leadership positions in fortune 500 companies. There are also more women who prepare themselves for leadership positions, with every year, more women graduating from universities. Wouldn't the facts be taken into consideration, especially when hiring women for more prestigious, ranked positions within companies.

Blog 29

There are a lot of reasons why women minorities stay with law firms. Over 49% of minorities in the law field, both men and women, have experienced some sort of racial stereotyping or harassment. These minorities feel pigeonholed because of minority stereotypes. The most reported discrimination was of minority women lawyers, who reported the highest of being passed up for more desirable cases or positions, are excluded from networking opportunities, and received an unfair performance evaluations. One women reported feeling like a and exotic animal, only being able to speak at functions for minorities, or pose for publication pictures. One of the women lawyers reported, "Most of the white associates at my firm went to state schools, but all the minority associates were from the top ten law schools. If you’re not from a top ten law school and you’re a minority candidate, you’re not on the same playing field as a white applicant from any law school".
These accounts show that minorities, especially women, are being heavily discriminated against, only being utilized when it is beneficial for the firm. The women retention rate is low in law firms because of all the discrimination experienced, a long with all the assumed stereotypes.
In the readings, it characterizes or stereotypes women as aggressive. These women to gain power. Also it shows a white male being more comfortable being partnered with black females.
Te book and the NPR article are very different, Chapter 5 discusses woman's behavior in the field, and male behavior. When the NPR article discusses how minorities experience stereotypes within law firms.

Blog 28

Jeffrey Rosen is an idiot. Quote cropping??? Come on, seriously?? Rosen characterized Sonia Sotomayor as an idiot bully who doesnt know how to do her job, but he is quoted as saying, "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", yet publishes all of these sideways, pieces parts to defame this now current Supreme Court justice...doesn't make sense. The article, "portrayed Sotomayor as too tempermental, too vain, and too stupid to serve on the Supreme Court". Also, a cut up quote said,"she is not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue."
If Sonia Sotomayor was a man, I do not think that her behavior alleged behavior would be under scrutiny. But since she is a women, and a minority, she was put to shame by a falsified article. Her alleged behavior is very similar to how a man acts in a court room against a women.
Sonia Sotomayor is also highly educated, but I still believe she is experiencing a competency gap, and George W. Bush, before he left office recommended a male justice, and there are a lot of men trying to trash her name and reputation.
What also gets to me from this article is that Jeffrey Rosen is glorified as a"legal eagle", wow, he trashed this woman with "anonymous" quotes, chopped up quotes, and perhaps made up quotes, and true to male form when opposing a female, they have to be aggressive, name call, and trash the opposition.

Blog 27

The competency gap that is experienced between men and women lawyers exists because women lawyers are not seen as lawyers first, but as women first. Women are also not judged equally to their male counterparts, women still have to work harder than men to be judged as equally competent. In the south, older male lawyers still view women as intruders and outsiders in the law profession. Is was said that women have to be objectively better to be perceived as equal in the profession. Later, an American bar association survey showed that 60% of women said that they had to work harder to prove themselves. Women also experience the male-lawyer paradigm, when there is an assumption that women lack power and therefore don;'t need to be take as seriously as men. Women are also labeled by male lawyers as "lady lawyers", which is pretty demeaning. When both a male and female lawyer are in a room, and there is a question of who is in charge, it is usually assumed that the male is in charge, undermining woman's perceived status and competence. Which this perceived status sticks until proven otherwise. In court cases, men use different tactics to undermine their female opposition. Male lawyers generally more aggressive with questions. They also bully or intimidate women in an attempt to derail their thoughts and knock their plans off course. Men also ask questions in a disrespectful, belittling manner, and sometimes using crude body language. Overall men try to use these aggressive tactics to get women to back down and become subservient, but if there is a male partner, this is less likely to occur.

Blog 26

Female lawyers have commonly felt the role males play in assisting women are usually mentor/teaching positions. Women lawyers have reported that since a lot of clients are expecting a male lawyer, female lawyers often are given assistance from male lawyers because of the expectation. These law offices are gendered organizations because females need male reinforcement. Gendered organizations are usually places that have a hierarchy of mostly one gender, which are usually males. There always has to be a male present for certain clients and/or judges to be made believers. A lot of the time, male lawyers are used because certain clients do not believe what a female lawyer has to say, and needs a male's opinion on her side to reinforce what she has said previously to the client. A women also reported that she answered a clients question, and the client asked the question again to a male just to re-affirm the answer. These situations women experience makes a woman's job so much harder, they catch a lot of flack from co-workers because it looks like they cannot complete their job duties, which it is just because they are not believable due to stereotypes they experience. These stereotypes that women experience are, clients second guessing them because they are unstable, emotional, insecure beings. These stereotypes exist because of what, and how did all the men attain all of the power again? There needs to be a few men who step up and assert women as powerful and knowledgeable humans.

Blog 25

Using sexualized behavior as a "weapon in the arsenal" is personally demeaning, but certain people use this strategy to advance themselves in their career, these people have no ethics or morals. English writes that there is "always sexual tension between men and women", which leaves the "available woman" stereotype. Some women are sexually harassed in the work place, and some women use it as an advancement technique. I also find it funny that women who use this sexualized behavior technique and do not experience success in advancement, they sometimes try to take down the person in power who did not give in, with a sexual harassment accusation, or lawsuit. Now lets make a pro's list of sexualized behavior; if works, a costly education is not needed for promotion, certain things, like errands and tasks are preformed quicker, timelier manner, sex (for some people), and perhaps a personal relationship could develop from advances. And now for the con's list; lack of respect from peers and/or superiors, unwanted sexual advances, sexual harrassment, continuation of stereotypes, among many other things.
Also, the media portrays these actions in many different ways. There are always sexy women in the media, and a lot of them are shown as flirty trying to get their way. In certain fictional police shows, women cops flirt with male cops to get something done for their own personal advancement. Also women are portrayed in position under male management, and to get a head, they flirt or do sexual favors for the boss to receive a promotion or pay raise.
This technique sets extremely negative stereotypes on women, and keeps us back in square one. Only if morals were valued all across the board, and we have people actually working hard to advance themselves, not offering sexualized behavior to do all the dirt work.

Blog 24

There are a lot of gender stereotypes that women experience in the law field. There are a lot of different organizations for women lawyers. There is an organization called The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), which is a national voluntary legal professional organization devoted to promoting the interests and progress of women lawyers and women's legal rights. NAWL focuses on issues relevant to women lawyers, such as the glass ceiling, pay equity, and balancing work and family. NAWL sends out publications with advise, and new trends in the field. The expectations women are facing are so much different from what men are experiencing. There are a lot of women leaving the profession because of maternity leave issues, and having time issues with having children. This also means there are women who are not even considering the law field because of the hours and stereotypes associated with the job. Also law firms are trying to keep a young look to their female employees, which puts added stress and expectations to middle age female lawyers. Women lawyers are less likely to make partner. Also women are highly criticized for their attire in the court room. One woman wrote that she wore super conservative clothing in front of a male judge because she did not want to be "distracting". She said she never heard of a male trying to play down his appearance, so he is not distracting to a female judge, perhaps him wearing a pink tie to signify his sensitive side. There was also an issue with woman's choice in shoes, there is a new trend called "toe cleveage" which in certain dress codes it is not appropriate, also, the issue of panty hose. Especially in a Phoenix summer, panty hose is not feasible, and there has been a push to reset dress codes, and do away with panty house in the summer, I believe there is a quite revolt against panty hose.

Blog 23

Political fashion has always been a topic of discussion. Martha Washington and Grace Coolidge were some of the first fashionable fist ladies. One of the most fashionable first ladies was Jackie Kennedy, she was always in the spot light for her clothing choices. She wore big designer names, and was always fashionable. Jackie Kennedy's clothing has been put in museums, and there have been books produced and is now known as a style icon. Later, Nancy Reagan offered her style in the white house. She was an ex-actress, pin-up. Fast forward, Michelle Obama is now turning heads with her style and fashion sense. She has been named one of the best dressed by "People Magazine".
Personally, I am interning at the AZ Attorney General's Office, we have a strict dress code, especially if your working with lawyers/going to court. When I went on my interview, I wore a white button-up shirt, a gray skirt suit, and panty hose, there preferred dress code for a law office. This outfit I had to wear was uncomfortable, and lacked shape and color.From what I have observed in our offices, when the female lawyers are in, they are wearing something similar to what I wore for my interview. According to the book, "Gender on Trail", they describe woman's clothing in the law field as being over masculine, and now women are trying to reset the fashion norms in their profession, trying to make the switch from masculine inspired suits to more feminine outfits , with more color and accessories. I'm now in the community services department, and have the ability to dress "business casual". For some of the younger women who work in the office, I have noticed more colors and non-traditional attire, which I guess is more accepted. Which brings it back to the question, why is there a dress-code anyway? This standard is out dated, and when there are a lot more options out there for women, I think the standards and codes should be "rewritten".

Blog 22

Sonia Sotomayor did not have the same roots as other Supreme Court justices. Sotomayor was a daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, and grew up in the Bronx, New York. She can from poor beginnings, but with her mother having high value placed on education, Sonia graduated from high school as her valedictorian and went to Princeton University, then Yale Law School.
Sonia had many different qualifications placed on her. She is a Latina woman. She is a registered Independent, had has more liberal views on issues. Her ethnicity and gender was highly criticized, but her overall job experience left her more than qualified for the Supreme Justice position. Sonia spoke her mind about the white men in the justice field, and was later plugged a racist by conservative white males in the field. After the issue, republican senators confronted her about her experiences and comments about white men, and she remarked that her personal experiences as a Latina women with white males, and she had never let her own life experiences or opinions influence her decisions, and to check her voting record. Sonia was the third female supreme court justice, and is the first "Hispanic" supreme court justice to rule. Discrepancy maybe??? Sonia has also been discriminated against because of her accent.....doesn't Sotomayor have college a few college degrees, and taught law classes? I think the men are trying to pull her apart for any non-white, non-male aspect of her.
Since there is a democratic party in the White House I think that Sonia Sotomayor had an easier time being selected for a Supreme Court position than she would have had in the past. Our nation is more open to minorities or non-white officials being elected. Sotomayor was a good, equal choice for Supreme Court Justice. She has a fair ruling record, sufficient job experience, and a great educational background.