Women Managing Partners Don’t Report Sexism, But They Are Few in Number
Women managing partners are still a rarity in law firms, but Pennsylvania lawyers in the job say gender hasn’t been a detriment.
If anything, gender was a benefit, female managing partners told the Legal Intelligencer.
A report last year by the National Association of Women Lawyers said only 6 percent of managing partners are women, an increase of just one percentage point from 2006. In Pennsylvania, only eight of the 100 largest firms have a woman in a position of firmwide or office management, the story says.
One recently appointed managing partner is Margaret Wenke of insurance litigation boutique Connor Weber & Oberlies. In the eight months she has held the job, Wenke reports, she’s had to deal with lots of issues, but sexism wasn’t one of them.
Insurance companies are clients, she said, and many of them have women in power. “They’re quite receptive to having a woman managing shareholder,” she told the Legal Intelligencer. And people across the board are also receptive. “It seems to be sort of a breath of fresh air for them, honestly,” she said.
She says her gender is helpful in another way. “Women have a natural tendency to multitask,” she said.
