User:Bees319/sandbox

I am learning to navigate and edit on Wikipedia as a part of my WGST 199 class. I am interested in women in the law field and the glass ceiling.

SAVE THE BEES!!!

Bee

a bee

Wikipedia articles that I am considering working on:

1. Glass ceiling
2. Women in law
3. Gender pay gap in the United States
4. Media and gender

Overall, there has been an increase of women in the law field. The increase is happening in the amount of female attorneys, but not the amount of female equity partners. In the United States, 60% of attorneys are women; however, the percent of female equity partners has remained constant at 15%.

Women in Law (editing practice)

Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers (also called barristers, attorneys or legal counselors), prosecutors (also called District Attorneys or Crown Prosecutors), judges, legal scholars (including feminist legal theorists), law professors and law school deans.

In the US, while women made up 34% of the legal profession in 2014, women are underrepresented in senior positions in all areas of the profession. There has been an increase in women in the law field since the 1970s, but the increase has been seen in entry level jobs. In the United States, 60% of attorneys are women; however, the percent of female equity partners has remained constant at 15%. Women of color are even more underrepresented in the legal profession. In private practice law firms, women make up just 4% of managing partners in the 200 biggest law firms. In 2014 in Fortune 500 corporations, 21% of the general counsels were women, of which only 10.5% were African-American, 5.7% were Hispanic, 1.9% were Asian-American/Pacific Islanders, and 0% were Middle Eastern. In 2009, 21.6% of law school Deans were women. Women held 27.1% of all federal and state judge positions in 2012. In the US, "[w]omen of color were more likely than any other group to experience exclusion from other employees, racial and gender stereotyping." There are few women law school deans; the list includes Joan Mahoney, Barbara Aronstein Black at Columbia Law School, Elena Kagan at Harvard Law School, Kathleen Sullivan at Stanford Law School, and the Hon. Kristin Booth Glenn and Michelle J. Anderson at the City University of New York School of Law.

In Canada, while 37.1% of lawyers are women, "50% ...said they felt their [law] firms were doing "poorly" or "very poorly" in their provision of flexible work arrangements." As well, "...racialized women accounted for 16% of all lawyers under 30" in 2006 in Ontario and women Aboriginal lawyers accounted for 1%.

Potential Sources

Pinnington, Ashly H. and Jörgen Sandberg. "Lawyers' Professional Careers: Increasing Women's Inclusion in the Partnership of Law Firms." Gender, Work & Organization, vol. 20, no. 6, Nov. 2013, pp. 616-631. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2012.00610.x.

Bellows, Laurel. "Let's Shatter the Glass Ceiling." ABA Journal 99, no. 2 (February 2013): 7. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 14, 2017).

Hayes, Hannah. 2011. "Women Trapped Under the Same Glass Ceiling." Perspectives: A Magazine For About Women Lawyers 19, no. 3: 10-11. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 14, 2017).

Oeltjen, Holly. "Breaking barriers. (Cover story)." Women In Business 44, no. 5 (September 1992): 20. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 14, 2017).

Kathleen Donovan, Women Associates' Advancement to Partner Status in Private Law Firms, 4 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 135, 152 (1990) 

Judith S. Kaye, Women Lawyers in Big Firms: A Study in Progress toward Gender Equality, 57 Fordham L. Rev 111, 126 (1988) 

Brenner, Hannah. "Expanding the Pathways to Gender Equality in the Legal Profession." Legal Ethics, vol. 17, no. 2, Sept. 2014, pp. 261-280. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5235/1460728X.17.2.261.

Jackson, Liane. "Minority Women Are Disappearing from Big Law--And Here's Why. (Cover Story)." ABA Journal, Mar. 2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=113270229&site=ehost-live.

Brown, Paulette. "Issues and Solutions Affecting Women of Color in the Law." Minority Trial Lawyer, vol. 7, no. 2, Jan. 2009, pp. 6-7. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=a9h&AN=48097468&site=ehost-live.

Bagati, Deepali. “Women of Color Continue to Face Barriers in U.S. Law Firms,  According to Catalyst Report.” Diversity Factor, vol. 17, no. 3, 2009, pp. 1–7.  ProQuest Direct, search-proquest-com.echo.louisville.edu/docview/213962789/fulltextPDF/7E0E0F329E944193PQ/1?accountid=14665.

McGhee, Tom. "Minority Lawyers Hit Glass Ceiling." Knight Ridder Tribune Business News: 1. Jan 15 2002. ProQuest. Web. 16 Oct. 2017 

Cole, Odette B. “Race” and Gender in the Legal Profession: Women's Lived Experiences of Differential Access and Discrimination in a Male-Dominated Profession, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Ann Arbor, 2006, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, http://echo.louisville.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/305316798?accountid=14665.

Annotated Bibliography for work on Women in Law

Source 1: Lawyers' Professional Careers: Increasing Women's Inclusion in the Partnership of Law Firms by Ashly Pinningtin

Ashly Pinningtin does a very good job at supplying a lot of statistical information. She emphasizes that while there has been an increase on women in the law field, women are not increasingly getting promotions to work at partnership level. This journal features a set of interviews that were done with male and female lawyers that aimed to understand how women and men view a women’s career in the law firm. The results found a focus on family and the amount of time males and females were willing to put into their careers. Pinningtin discusses the role that family plays into women’s professional careers. It is pointed out that in Australia discussion of career and promotion difficulties that women face bring about increasing employment opportunities for women. Pinningtin’s journal offers insight into the feelings that men and women have towards gender at their firm as well as factual information. 

Source 2: Expanding the Pathways to Gender Equality in the Legal Profession by Hannah Brenner

Hannah Brenner focuses on the glass ceiling in relation to women in law. Brenner focuses on the different types of discrimination that women are facing in law firms. She finds her information through the studying of multiple reports such as reports done by the National Association of Women Lawyers and the American Bar Association. She compiles the information she studied into a single journal. She starts off addressing the equality seen in the amounts of men and women in law school, but highlights the differences after law school which is seen in their positions of leadership and positions within law firms. In addition, Brenner points out that for law firms, the higher position of women is not a universal goal among the nation’s top firms and argues that this is unacceptable. She puts an emphasis on the amount of sexual harassment women face in the legal profession. Brenner provides many statistics to support her claim that sexual harassment from employers, fellow employees at law firms, and judges are affecting many women in the legal field. Along with highlighting the sexual harassment as a way to express the hardships women face in law firms, she also interprets the statistics as reasons as to why women in the legal profession are becoming discouraged in their jobs. She also explains what the Justicia Project is and what it aims to do and how it aims to do it. Brenner concludes her article by giving statistics that maintains her main point that women are not given equal treatment and equal opportunity at law firms. This article will be useful seeing as it provides information regarding the sexual harassment that women are facing within the legal field. 

Source 3: Women Trapped Under the Same Glass Ceiling by Hannah Hayes

Hannah Hayes supplies a lot of information found through a survey conducted by the National Association of Women Lawyers. The survey highlighted the low percentage of equity partners that are women in law firms. Hayes also points out the wage gap that exists between male and female lawyers. Hayes puts an emphasis on the different types of roles that men and women play within the firm. She uses this information to argue that men are given the jobs that are associated with power and leadership while women are asked to sit on diversity committees, nurture associates, and take on teamwork assignments. Hayes notes that a large number of women surveyed at a law firm reported being bullied, threatened, or intimidated. This article offers a look into the different jobs that men and women are given once hired to work at a law firm and the lack of opportunities and leadership roles that women are given.

Source 4:  Women Associates' Advancement to Partner Status in Private Law Firms by Kathleen Donovan

Kathleen Donovan, who received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law, puts focus on how women in the law field has changed in the past 20 years. Donovan’s information and inferences come from the comparing of multiple law journals and studies that look at the number of women in the legal profession. An emphasis is put on the fact that the number of women partners is not proportional to the number of women who are associates. Donovan addresses the changes in discriminatory practices and what that has meant for women. She points out what changes have been made and specifically mentions incidents that have happened to female members of Harvard Law School’s class of 1974. A timeline of the percentage of women in law school is shown and Donovan uses this to argue that women’s attendance in law school has increased and continues to increase. Donovan proposes that when women entering the legal profession began to rise, the law itself began to evolve. She mentions specific law suits that help law firms accountable for discriminatory interviewing practices. Donovan closes out the journal by commenting on the glass ceiling and the barriers that are included in the glass ceiling such as mentoring problems and “rainmaking.” This journal will be useful seeing that is offers information regarding specific law suits and and changes in relation to law firm’s gender discrimination. 

Source 5: Minority Women Are Disappearing from Big Law--And Here's Why by Laine Jackson

Laine Jackson puts focus on how women in general struggle to rise up in law firms, but how women of color face an even bigger struggle. She also puts emphasis on the decline of women of color in the legal profession as well as providing her own ideas about what could be done to improve conditions for women of color working at law firms. Jackson begins by describing the work day of Jenny Jones (her real name was not used) who is a woman of color in the legal profession. Jones is described as a fifth-year associate busy planning an exit strategy. Jackson provides quotes from Jones that describes the exclusion that Jones feels as well as how she views her work environment.  In addition, Jackson highlights the American Bar Association Commission of Women in the Profession’s Women of Color Research Initiative in 2003. Jackson reports the findings from this study and the findings are that women of color receive less financial compensation, are denied access to significant assignments, receive fewer promotions, and have the highest rate of attrition. Jackson supplies a lot of statistics that come from studies and surveys done by the ABA and the National Association of Women Lawyers. Jackson’s article will be useful because it supplies statistics that highlight the treatment of minority women at law firms as well as offering insight into what can be done to better the treatment of minority women at these law firms.

Source 6: Issues and Solutions Affecting Women of Color in the Law by Paulette Brown

Paulette Brown emphasizes the exclusion of women of color in the legal profession. Brown reports most of her information from a 2006 American Bar Association Commission of Women in the Profession report that identifies challenges faced by women of color in law firms. Brown explains that the report was a culmination of a study that was designed to be used as a catalyst for removing institutional impediments for women of color and to provide tools to law firms that could be used to encourage women of color to use their talents to ensure they succeed at their law firms. Brown highlights the key findings in the study, women of color felt isolated, excluded, and that they were receiving unwanted critical attention. Brown also emphasizes the idea of the ripple effect which is the idea that women of color are initially faced with disadvantages, which carries into their entire career. Brown ends her article by mentioning that law firms have put efforts into increasing their diversity by increasing recruiting efforts and taking efforts to ensure retention. This article will be useful because it is very fact-based and offers information regarding what is being done to combat the inequality that minority women in the legal profession face. 

Source 7: Women of Color Continue to Face Barriers in U.S. Law Firms,  According to Catalyst Report

The author puts emphasis on the retention, development, and advancement of minority women in the legal profession. The author supplies a lot of statistics that highlight the decline of women of color in the legal profession, the amount of women of color who are associates versus partners, and the amount of women of color leaving their law firms after their fifth and seventh years. These statistics come from a 2008 survey done by the National Association of Women Lawyers. The author indicates that the practices surrounding compensation, allocation of assignments, and double standards in performance reviews are barriers that keep women of color from advancing at their law firms. The author focuses on the Catalyst 2009 survey of women of color in law firms. The author reports that through this study it was found that women of color find the diversity practices of their law firm much less effective in comparison to how men of color, white women, and white men felt. The author’s article will be useful because there are a lot of statistics that focus on the idea that women of color in the legal profession are hitting barriers as well as what those barriers are. 

Source 8: Minority Lawyers Hit Glass Ceiling by Tom McGhee

Tom McGhee uses a lot of quotes from credible people to support his claim that minority women are hitting the glass ceiling in the legal profession. These credible people are women of color in the legal profession. These women have experienced the treatment of women of color at law firms and can attest to how it made them feel as well as what that meant for their career. McGhee emphasizes that minority women find themselves leaving large, established practices to work for smaller firms where they feel more comfortable. McGhee also highlights that women of color often start to feel that there is no way for them to continue moving up at their firms so they ultimately leave. McGhee also provides statistics from the ABA and the National Association of Law Placement that focus on the amount of minority women partners and the amount of billable hours that must be worked. McGhee’s article will be useful because it offers insight into the feelings of minority women in regards to the legal profession as well as providing statistics to support the claims that these women are making. 

Women in Law Contribution Draft

Women of color 

In the legal profession in the US, "[w]omen of color were more likely than any other group to experience exclusion from other employees, racial and gender stereotyping."

Representation

“The NALP reports that representation of African-American associates in the profession has been declining every year since 2009--from 4.66 percent to 3.95 percent." “And according to a November NALP press release, at just 2.55 percent of partners in 2015, minority women "continue to be the most dramatically underrepresented group at the partnership level, a pattern that holds across all firm sizes and most jurisdictions.”

Treatment

In a 2008 survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) the report found that “women of color perceive their workplace as having an exclusionary culture replete with racial/ethnic stereotyping. They also feel that they are being overlooked by diversity efforts and that these efforts are imperfectly executed." These feelings are seen over and over again in reports and surveys done over women of color in the legal profession. The America Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, released a report which was a culmination of a study meant to address the decline of women of color in the legal profession. In the study women of color were given the opportunity to express concern over the negative effects they faced in the workplace and how those effects carried into their personal life. “Women of color reported, for example, that they are constantly plagued by feelings of isolation, exclusion, and unwanted critical attention.” The ABA Commission on Women in the Profession when looking at reports on the treatment of women of color in the legal profession were disappointed with the patterns they noticed which led the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession to undertake their own research in 2003, the Women of Color Research Initiative. “Findings concluded that, in both law firms and corporate legal departments, women of color receive less compensation than men and white women; are denied equal access to significant assignments, mentoring and sponsorship opportunities; receive fewer promotions; and have the highest rate of attrition.” There is a ripple effect within the treatment of women of color. Women of color are put at a disadvantage early on making “the ultimate result that women of color miss opportunities to get better work assignments, more client contact, and more billable hours.” Women of color’s treatment within the legal profession and their feelings about this treatment have had an impact on the retention of women of color in the legal profession. “Women of color leave their firms at a much higher rate than white women; in fact, nearly 75 percent leave by their fifth year, and nearly 86 percent leave before their seventh year." These women are leaving because they feel the only way to escape exclusion in the workplace is to leave the work place.

Strategy

ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession released a report aimed at identifying challenges faced by women of color in law firms and found that “to overcome systemic discrimination against women of color, firms must recognize that the experiences of women of color are different from those of other groups; implementing changes to reflect this difference is necessary for retention. Firms and corporations must initiate active mentorship programs and encourage organization-wide discussions about issues concerning women of color, and constructive feedback is required.” After the release of this report several law firms have attempted the recommendations set forth by the report. Law firms began initiatives that focus on recruiting women of color as well as ensuring the retention of women of color as well. Recruiting of minority women has been increased through law firms finding summer associates by doing interviews “at the Southeast Minority Career Fair, MCCA/Vault Career Fair, Specialty Bar Association, Lavender Law Career Fair, and at schools such as Howard University School of Law and North Carolina Central School of Law.”