I love listening to NPR while I am driving in my car. Fortunately, or unfortunately as it may be, I live in the Washington, DC area where traffic is worse than most places in the country. As a result, I spend a lot of time in my car in traffic. The silver lining is that it gives me a lot of time with NPR.
Recently, while listening to All Things Considered, I heard about a study examining unconscious and subtle biases within the context of whether men or women are more ethical at work. In examining which group, men or women, receives harsher punishment for ethical violations on the job, the study concluded that women receive harsher punishments. The reason why will surprise you.
The study did not conclude that women are less ethical than men. No, in fact, the study showed that, because people expect women to be more ethical than men, an ethical infraction by a woman is met with greater punishment than the same infraction by a man.
In other words, people react harshly when they are disappointed to find that a woman has acted in exactly the same manner as a man, who they consider to be unethical. The woman gets punished to a greater degree. So, the double standard strikes again with particularly harmful results.
You are probably wondering whether this disparity could possibly apply to the legal profession. Yes, indeed. Read the dialogue from the radio show to learn about the experience of Mary-Hunter McDonnell, an organizational sociologist at Wharton School, when she was a law student. Her ethics professor used the example of a shameless attorney in his lecture to highlight unethical behavior. When he disclosed that the attorney in question was female, an “audible gasp” went through the lecture hall. The students had associated the unethical behavior with a man, and they were expressing disbelief that a woman had acted in such an unethical manner.
The effects of this stereotype stuck with Ms. Hunter McDonnell. Years later, in cooperation with colleagues at two other leading universities, the research team turned their attention back to the profession of law and analyzed disciplinary punishments meted out by the ABA. Their findings confirmed that the positive stereotype that women are more ethical than men ends up having negative effects for the women. Women lawyers had a 35 percent chance of being disbarred for an identical infraction that resulted only in a 17 percent chance of disbarment for male lawyers.
The bottom line is that having a reputation for ethical behavior can get a woman lawyer disbarment at a higher percentage rate than her male counterparts. Certainly a Catch 22 you want to understand.
A high pedestal for ethical behavior has been created for women lawyers, and falling off can do some real harm. Don’t compromise your ethics, but be aware what you are up against.
