I read an interesting article in the National Law Journal recently. The March 16th on-line edition included an article entitled “Women’s Successes in School….Bleed Away in Their Paychecks”, which offered some insight from author Anya Kamenetz that lines up nicely with my own thoughts on what women need to succeed in the law profession.
The particular point that interested me most was that girls outperform boys in school from the time they enter kindergarten—-for some very good reasons. Girls learn to line up neatly, girls are less disruptive and listen better than boys, and girls follow the rules. As a result, girls succeed in pleasing their teachers, getting recognition and achieving good grades. That works very well—in fact, it works well all the way through law school—until the game changes. Suddenly the personal characteristics being valued are not the same. Suddenly the academic achievement does not translate into higher salaries for women than men—-or even equal salaries for that matter.
True, a lot of this has to do with the time that women take out for child-rearing, but there is more to this. And it is more that we can control and change.
Instead of compliance, the competitive worlds of business and law want assertiveness and boldness, and those behaviors are the most rewarded in the new models. So, as I have been saying in my books and speeches all along, women lawyers must step up to the plate and play the game that is popular at the moment and that leads to success, recognition and upward mobility.
Women lawyers must learn to be assertive, take credit for their accomplishments, and become comfortable with business promotion and networking. They must learn to insist on quality work and fight for it. Put those skills together with women’s natural and often superior communication and management skills, and it is a winning formula. Ignore it, and you do so at your risk.
But, that is not all. The NLJ article confirmed another of my major themes: This will not happen without a lot of mentoring from senior women lawyers and a lot of planning by young women lawyers. Structural changes in law firms—like the availability of flexible schedules and the advent of part-time career paths—-alone will not bring the results women attorneys want and need today. Yes, those things are necessary and valuable, but it is really up to the young women to plan their careers with these things in mind and the more seasoned women lawyers to provide the mentoring and the support that is critical to positive results. In fact, the NLJ article notes a survey by Catalyst that found that women with mentors saw their salaries rise 27 percent higher than women without mentors. That’s significant.
Mary Ann Mason, a University of California (Berkeley) law professor is quoted in the article with this to say about mentoring and planning: “I’d like to see Life Planning 101 as a college course. Young women are unaware of how difficult it becomes fitting childbirth into your career plans. But…if you think in advance, it becomes easier.”
If you have heard me speak or have read my book and prior blogs, this is not the first time you have heard this. But, it is very much worth repeating.
For the full text of the National Law Journal article, see,www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20100508_1960
