Blog # 26

Law is a gendered organization because it is predominately a male dominant field and often women struggle within this field. Women are often questioned or criticized because people think they are not capable of completing tasks the way men would. For example, in the Gender on Trial book there are many examples of “male backing” for female lawyers. In one example, a female lawyer explains that sometimes to get her point across to a client she needs to get a male coworker to tell the client again exactly what she said and often times they will listen to the advice or message when it has come from a male, even if the males status is below hers. This is problematic because the client does not trust this woman for whatever reason and they need male reassurance. In another example, a woman lawyer has to convince her clients that she can do the job as well or maybe better than her partner in the firm before they are even willing to meet with her about the case. Another example that was a little shocking to me was one lawyer had a male assistant and the clients assumed the roles were turned. During their introductions they made all the eye contact with the male assistant and tried to converse mostly with him, however when it was explained that she was the lawyer and he was the assistant the demeanor changed and the clients did not really know how to act. The other thing that I found very interesting is that even as a partner the women lawyers have a wider range of tasks. For example, during some meetings the woman lawyer was expected to order the food for everyone or even at times the women lawyers were expected to do general work such as filing or paralegal work where their male counterparts would never do such tasks.