Law Practice Management
New ABA Guide Helps Law Firms Objectively Evaluate Female Associates
Posted Aug 21, 2008, 05:53 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Law firms often lament the difficulty of retaining female attorneys, as the number of women partners continues to lag.
But even those who mean well can fall victim to unconscious stereotyping, making it more difficult for women to rise through the law firm ranks, according to a book recently published by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.
Its newly revised guidebook, Fair Measure, offers specific suggestions, including a step-by-step process and forms that can be used by supervising attorneys and associates themselves to help correct for such unconscious bias and objectively evaluate both women and men.
Additional coverage:
Blog of Legal Times: "ABA Releases Guide on Gender Bias in Firms"
ABAJournal.com: "Want More Women Partners? Then Name Them, Blogger Tells Firms"
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Comments
Posted by Ellen Barshevsky - 3 months, 1 day, 19 hours, 27 minutes ago
Sounds great, but NO guidebook will be able to cause us WOMEN to be fully and fairly credited for our true contributions to the firm! I hardly think reading an ABA text will transform male boorishness into objectivity. Au contraire, I have 8 years of experiences proving the opposite to be true. It’s going to take a LOT OF EDUCATION to get the MEN to lose their biaeses against WOMEN even if it is unconscious bias. The book must tell the men NOT to objectify us and to treat us as EQUALS. Otherwise its just lip service for a big problem.
Posted by Columbus Ohio - 3 months, 1 day, 16 hours, 47 minutes ago
Am I the only woman wondering why the push seems to be for some sort of “seperate but equal” way of promoting and evaluating men and women in law firms? After seven years in a large law firm, I’ve found that the way to get past any perceived bias is to do good work. If I don’t work as hard as my male counterparts, I certainly don’t expect to get promoted at the same pace. I’m a mom and I’m an attorney. I don’t expect to be better at either without working my butt off. I’m not saying there isn’t bias out there, but I don’t think treating women as a different type of lawyer is the answer.
Posted by New York, New York - 3 months, 1 day, 14 hours, 59 minutes ago
You’ve got to love Ellen’s hypocrisy. Criticizing men’s supposed stereotyping of women, by stereotyping all men as objectifying women. Now that’s rich. Ellen, try this, treat each person individually based on their merits. It’s what I, and the rest of the grown-ups, do.
Posted by Hadley V. Baxendale - 3 months, 1 day, 14 hours, 47 minutes ago
Columbus: You nailed it. “Do good work” and you will stay in line for promotion. That includes being available, in the office, and flexible in work/travel requirements. The problem is that many mothers cannot or would rather not, and that’s fine, but some do not like the consequences and want to be “more equal.“
Ellen: Your insinuations are prejudiced, bigoted, sexist and offiensive to men. Don’t generalize by gender when you insult people because you offend members of that gender who do not act or think the way you accuse “all” of them.
Time to face the reality that the glass ceiling was broken years ago and now you are complaining about consequences of choices of work habits, and not bias.