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.