Blog Post #26

We do not live in a gender neutral world, and it is true that many times a female attorney is by the biased outside world more than the world inside her firm. Often, women will run into male opposing counsel that treat her disrespectfully, and test her. Or women will have clients that do not necessarily trust their judgment and acts as if they would rather have a man representing them. Sometimes, if a woman is in court with an unruly opposing counsel, she will allow a male to take over the case because the opposing counsel is unlikely to treat a male attorney in the same manner. A female attorney who told a story like this mentioned that it is what was best of the client. Most of the time this is the case. Another female attorney found that just having male supervision in the courtroom discouraged unruly behavior of the opposing counsel. One woman told that sometimes when she meets a new client she will have a male colleague sit in on the first meeting so that she can establish her credibility with him there to validate it for the clients. She said that she also is sure to use statements like, “We think,” rather than, “I think.” Some women often use this tactic to get their clients on board. Unfortunately, it is the sad truth that society often makes the glass ceiling that women experience already, even thicker. Many times looking for the support or backing of a male colleague is the right thing to do for the firm and the client but these women do have need to be concerned with the effect that doing so has on her status in the eye of her colleagues.

This points to law as a gendered organization because it still sits on several traditional stereotypes. The first being that women are the weaker gender and they cannot handle problems themselves; In essence, they need to be saved. Women having men rush in and save them appears just like this stereotype. At the same time, this depicts the man as stereotypical, and as the leader, and the one is control. It is assumed that men are the ones with the power, and unfortunately women relying on men shows just that. It may not be true, but that is how many people will perceive it.