I'm beat. Just watched the Jennifer Aniston special on E! because I was too stuck in the sofa to get away. I have to pop out my contacts and go to bed, but I did want to link to this article in Times from Sunday, which looks at why so few partners are women.
I feel like we've covered this ground many times on this blog. We've talked about why more women aren't political bloggers, columnists, academics, advertising CEOs (links later). Is it worth bringing up again? Well, the lawyer issue is a big one. Unlike other fields, women start off in high numbers. May even be outnumber men from law school. But their numbers at the top of their field are outrageous. Only 17% of partners are women.
It's a long article, which touches on many of the factors that have affected women in other fields -- the kids, the lack of mentoring, the lack of self-promotion.
Is there anything specific about law that makes it unfriendly to women? The article briefly mentions that the whole billable hour thing of law is especially hard on women. In an e-mail, Jeremy mentions that maybe more women are choosing part time work in law, since there are many opportunities for that.
In my highly unscientific focus group of friends who are lawyers, they all hate their jobs. One wants to be film writer, but he can't quit until he sells a script. Another wants her academic husband to get a real job, so she can quit. The other is getting trained to become a physical trainer. Could it be that everyone hates being a lawyer, but only the women escape?
