Blog # 32

Parenting is different for male lawyers and female lawyers. Typically being a father does not impact the job as much as it would for a mother because generally the woman is still responsible for a majority of the childcare. High-powered woman lawyers are viewed as suspect parents because it is thought that successful woman are focused on their careers and not their children. It is explained by one powerful woman that she has never met a woman in her same position who is a nurturing, caring mother. She explains that it is too hard to do both and the expectation that woman should be able to do both is impossible.

It is also explained by Holly English that women lawyers have to down play their positions to other mothers because they are often judged harshly. Mothers feel that the demands of being a lawyer would be too much, so children of lawyers do not receive as much attention and nurturing as they need. For example, one mother went to her child’s school function and other mothers asked what she did and she told them she worked at a law firm, but she did not state that she was a lawyer because of the fear of being judged. Some women are forced to choose either their family or their work which leads to many women leaving their positions as a lawyer to raise their family because they cannot do both. For example, many women believe that they can do part time work while they are pregnant or raising their family, however this is problematic because the work shifts. Many women have reported that once they switched to part time status they were given more paralegal tasks and fewer cases to work. Their workload eventually became very small and they eventually leave the firm due to being unsatisfied with their positions.