Blog Post #32

Parenthood is definitely different for female lawyers versus male lawyers. For males, parenthood is often seen as a plus because it increases stature without diminishing the legitimacy at work. Fatherhood is more strictly defined that motherhood. Men are supposed to be the breadwinner, and very committed to work, and that is why employers like when men start a family. Often, fathers are given more compensation because they are considered to be the heads of households. Women that are the heads of households do not have this luxury. However, men receive much worse backlash than women if they want to take paternity leave or reduce their hours. They will often not take official paternity leave and just ad together vacation time.

Female often experience parenthood as a negative, at least for their work life. Once a woman gets engaged or married there is the assumption she will be starting a family soon and her work life become an uphill battle. One woman told Holly English that she actually hid her pregnancy for seven months so she wouldn’t be taken off a case. Another woman told that she does not even mention she has children so that the will not decrease her workload. At larger firms, it is likely that women will not be put on big cases because of their domestic responsibilities. One guy mentioned that women are always leaving for something for their kids, but you never ever see guys doing that. A male partner said that he understands these women, mainly because they should be raising children, and the men should not. Women who work less to have a family are frowned upon. Women who maintain the same amount of work and have a family are also frowned upon. People often criticize their parenting. But no one criticizes a man’s parenting if he works a lot; probably because his role is the provider, not the nurturer. Some say that two working parents cannot give a child the amount of attention in needs and deserves, and many of the female attorneys are concerned about this too. One person pointed out that they personality that generally goes along with an attorney is not generally the personality of a nurturing mother, so they questioned how this works. One mother was worrying about how much her children were suffering by staying home alone after school until she gets home around dinner time. She explained that she doesn’t even have time to make dinner. In front of other parent, many female attorneys will down play their success because if they are successful in work they are assumed to be a bad mother.