Response # 39

In order to have a balance in the work and family life there needs to be an equality that exists between men and women. English states a few institutions that need to be emplaced that will help create the solution to the balance. One is the assistance of childcare in the workforce. Childcare needs to be available for women to have careers in the legal field and also let them be a mother and wife as well. Men need to understand that suppression of women is no longer legal and discrimination needs to be acted upon with harsh punishments. Civil rights movements need to be continued to insure that women will continue to receive the same treatment as men do and also to close the wage gap that exists in today’s world. English provides a lot of detail as to how the future needs to play out for such equality to exist. Her re-imaging the future holds many well-established values that can help solve the problem of discrimination against women in the legal field. However, the most important way to reshape the future is for women today, right now, to push on the “glass ceiling”. To scream enough! Stop allowing for such inequality to continue and to pursue through the law punishment to those who neglect to change. As it was shown in the previous blog women have been breaking the glass ceiling for hundreds of years and although women have come along way in the view of the public, there is much more room to be covered. It is up to everyone including men to put an end to the discrimination that occurs to women and minority women everyday. The treatment and the lack of respect through salary is not something that should be going on in the 21st century.

Response # 38

Judge Jane M Boulin was the first black law grad from Yale Law School. She is also the first black judge in the state of New York. She gave the opening for minorities to be able to pursue a degree and have the ability to practice law in a society that at the time was very much segregated. It gave other minorities hope and encouragement to break the “glass ceiling” that existed during that time. She worked for her father as a clerk until she passed the New York State bar exam in 1937. Mayor LaGuardia promoted her to judge of domestic relations court where she served for forty years. She is a role model in the field of law to show that breaking the glass ceiling is a possible when all odds are against a person. It provides the power for women in today’s world to continue to push on the ceiling in order for it to change. Just hoping it will change at some point in time cannot do it. Women need to take a stand for what they believe in and speak out against things that are not just. Another important woman is by the name of Myra Bradwell. Myra Bradwell studied law with her husband who was a judge. She later applied to take the Chicago bar in which she was denied access. She took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court where the states’ ruling was upheld. The Supreme Court stated that women do not belong in the positions to interpret law. Rather their primary role was to be a wife and a mother and this was by the law of the creator. This is significant because later in 1885 the decision was overturned and Bradwell was given the license to practice law. It was the first time a women was able to break the glass ceiling and prove to society that they have the right and ability to practice law.

Response #37

The report titled Charting our Progress shows the increase in the amount of women who are participating in the field of law. Women in 2003 represent 50% of the entering law students into law schools. This was up form 45% from the year of 1994. This is an example that women are being able to practice law and are becoming more interested in the law. It also shows the rise in other areas such as women being part of large fortune 500 companies and also partners in large firms through out the country. However, women are still paid a much less wage than a male attorney on average. This is something that lacks in society today and must be brought to a close. Women are known to not be aggressive enough or even too aggressive at times along with becoming to emotionally involve with clients. These are many reasons as to why for the longest time women did not practice law. Men who interview prospects for their firm are still to this day asking women questions that are illegal to ask. They are asking women if they plan on having children and how their family is cooping with the big move. They have also been asked if they do have children and if they do would they be willing to keep up with the billing expectations the law firm has. It has also been shown that typically it used to be that men enjoyed and devoted their lives to the law. The wife would stay at home while the husband would put 70 to 8o hours a week in at the firm. This is also beginning to change and new women and men attorney are seeing that is not the life in which they wish to live. Many of them are going out on their own to develop their own practices to have more flexible hours.

Response # 36

Can corporate American lure the women back in to the industry? This is a tough question. I truly believe that some women are enticed by the fact of climbing the corporate latter to prove to not only themselves but also others that women can do the same things as men. However, I also believe that women tend to have different goals in life than men do. Men tend to want to provide the best life possible for their families. By having such goals they tend to sacrifice the time that is lost with their families. My mother is a Nurse for a large hospital in Southern Michigan. She has been practicing her field for around 23 years. She works with children on the pediatrics unit. Recently, a floor manager position opened up on her floor. Floor managers make a very nice salary. (Upwards of six figures in income.)I asked my mother is she was going to put in for the promotion. Her answer was No Way!! I asked her why. She said because she does not want to have the headaches and the responsibility that the managers have to deal with. She went on to say that the managers are salary awhile she is still hourly so for her she gets to work her three- twelve hour shifts a week and if she works more she is paid for it. Whereas the managers they tend to work close to fifty to sixty hours a week but are only being paid for forty. My mom said you are also the one in charge of making sure that the floor is staffed properly and dealing with patient issue that sometimes could have been avoided. She said she loves her job and she is content with where she is. She makes great money and says she gets to go into work perform her ability as a nurse and then punches out and leaves to return to her family.

Response # 35

The EEOC recommends certain balances for work/family life. It explores pitfall that each company posses and could do better to provide women and families with support for their work and family life. Providing assistance childcare is the major complication that women have in their lives to try and balance their work life and family life. Women are still the dominate person to take are of the children in the household and they also make up around 46% of the work force. They are performing two very important jobs which one is only bringing income into the household. Men have begun to take part in the childcare process but not at a level that will help alleviate the stress that women have been burdened with. It is extremely difficult for women to balance a work and family life when there is little assistance from their employers. In Chaudry’s book he gives plenty of real life examples as to why single mothers cannot always have a job. This is because they cannot find childcare in which they can afford. As soon as they do receive an income the government shuts them off of childcare and then the mother is working o send her child to a day care. As any person would say with common sense, that makes no sense. So therefore, the mothers have no other choice but to quit the job and return back on to the government subsidies. How are these mothers supposed to ever hold a career when there is no assistance for them to keep the career? Almost every mother in the book said the most difficult part was trying to find reliable safe childcare for her children. The job part was easy. It was the childcare that kept them from keeping the job long-term. This leads employers to believe that women are not dependable when they have children when really it is not that the women are not dependable, it is the employers who do not provide any assistance which would allow them to become dependable.

Response # 34

Joan Willams is the author of the book “Unbending gender”. She wrote this book to because as a women who has had a child her gender lead her in the direction of which career field she will be focused in. In her book she has many key terms that relate to the “Gender on Trial” book. Two important terms are market care and family work. Market care is work that is receives a payment. Family care is care that is given to the family where there is no compensation that is involved. Women usually have to take care of the household choirs and provide assistance to the elder. Women also are in charge of cooking family dinners and taking care of the children when they might be ill. She also chose the title because she said that although there has been some change in the history for women, it is still not what was hoped for 20 or 30 years ago. Society is still not bending the roles that women are allowed to be played. They are still very much expected to perform the same tasks they have been performing for many of years. Women still have to fight the stereotypes that have been placed on them for many years. They still are expected to perform the household choirs and now, in modern society, many women are in the workforce, which puts a greater demand on their presences. Williams explains in correlation with “Gender on Trial” those women are still being harassed and suppressed through the masculinity of males. There is still a great amount of unfairness that exists in workplaces due to the gender discrimination. Women have a hard time keeping a long-term job especially in the legal field due to the high stress and requirements many firms place on their associates. Women who have obligations at the home to find it very hard to coop with the stress and most often are forced to leave their jobs. In the video interview, one researches shows that women are being suppressed in their own homes. Some families keep the women at home to take care of the children. The men do not see the need for women to have a career and pay a daycare center when their wife’s can just be at home watching the children for free. This for some women do not allow them to ever pursue a career. Society has changed in regards to letting a woman into the workforce and valuing the service they may provide. However it has been found that the men themselves have not changed. Men continuously hold them back entering into the workforce at an equal level. This is an explanation the Joan Williams and the “Gender on Trial” book try to explain in the text. Women are not being suppressed to the same degree as they were 20 to 30 years ago. However, they are not close to being on the same level playing field as men are in current time.

Response #33

Women have advanced in the law field but still have many more hurdles to cover. The three women who left a large firm in New York to open the first all women firm in the city is one example. These three women “broke the glass ceiling” in the city by allowing women to have access to a established firm that understands the restrictions they posses due to their roles in the workforce and at home. It shows that women have been able to come a long way. Fifty years ago an it would have been a lot harder for these three women to leave a firm and open a all women firm. Many people in their previous firm considered them “crazy” for leaving. As one of the partners states that many lawyers who either have been laid off or who are seeking new employment, are asking these three women for advice on the best way to open their own firms. Although this is a major accomplishment for women, it is also the 21st century and the first all women law firm is being opened in the city of New York that is home to millions of people shows that much more road is need for pavement. Al long as women continue to challenge the “glass ceiling” that has been placed on them, to break it, will allow for women to further continue advancing in the legal field. Law firms will also need to accept that fact that women will need some different options when it comes to working. They will need flexible work schedules and more time off for parenting. This can be beneficial due to the fact that some women would prefer to come in later and work later. This would allow firms to extend their hours of operation for clients due to the flexibility that women would require.