Even Harvard Law School Lawyers Face Gender Based Obstacles and Varied Career Trajectories

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• Even Harvard Law School Lawyers Face Gender Based
  Obstacles and Varied Career Trajectories

Summary A recent report released by Harvard Law
School shows that its graduates continue to face
various obstacles in their careers.
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• It's been over fifty years since Harvard Law
  School admitted female students and the school
  just issued a report examining how HLS's female
  graduates are faring in the workplace. The report
  confirms that a fancy law degree is no free pass
  when it comes to gender related obstacles in the
  legal profession.The report surveyed female and
  male HLS alums from the classes of 1975, 1985,
  1995 and 2000.Though primarily focused on gender
  disparities, the report also provides interesting
  insight into the career trajectories of HLS alums
  of both genders. Most striking, the study found
  that over one-fourth (28) of graduates surveyed
  are no longer practicing law at all. Gender
  IssuesThe 70-page report concludes "Even women
  who start their careers with the benefit of an
  educational credential traditionally thought to
  be an important hedge against adversity
  nevertheless continue to encounter greater
  obstacles than their male classmates-particularly
  when they attempt to integrate family obligations
  with professional goals." One area of disparity
  is in full-time versus part-time work. For the
  class of 2000, for example, 98.9 of men and
  97.7 of women worked full-time in their first
  post-graduation job. But ten years later, zero
  percent of the men worked part-time as compared
  to 13 of women. Of the women, 12 had left the
  paid labor force altogether.

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• The disparity (and inequity) doesn't stop there.
  Among full-time law firm employees, women
  reported working an average of four hours a week
  more than men. Meanwhile, fewer women reported
  holding top management positions. Moreover,
  although starting salaries were generally equal
  (except for the 2000 class, in which men came in
  at 115,000 and women 85,000), the economic
  disparity between the genders increased over
  time, perhaps because more men than women
  migrated to high-paying non-law jobs in
  businesses like investment banks and hedge
  funds.As far as the lawyers' personal lives go,
  the women were less likely to be married than
  men, and 93.6 of male law firm partners were
  married as compared with 66.4 of female
  partners. When it came to having children, women
  more than men reported adverse consequences such
  as having to leave a job, experiencing a delay in
  promotion, having their commitment to work
  questioned and even losing office space.
• Mobility and FlexibilityBeyond "gender issues,"
  the Harvard report provides other insights into
  today's legal professionals. The trend appears to
  be towards greater mobility within law sectors
  and among professions generally.

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• Most HLS graduates surveyed began their careers
  at law firms, but many transitioned to public
  sector jobs or to business sector jobs, either
  working in a non-legal capacity or as in-house
  counsel. Moreover, the 1975 graduates had on
  average 3.2 employers over a 40-year career,
  while the 2000 graduates already had an average
  of 2.7 employers during their much shorter
  10-year careers.(Similarly, an American Bar
  Foundation study that looked at young lawyers
  across the country from all different law schools
  found that in a 12-year career many attorneys
  already had as many as four different jobs.)As
  far as why so many HLS lawyers left the law, the
  reasons range from a failure to find the work
  interesting to being dissatisfied with the
  work/life balance to just being pulled in another
  direction. But even those HLS grads who followed
  other paths expressed appreciation for their
  education. Over 80 reported they would still
  obtain a law degree if they had to do it over
  again.
• Conclusions
• Female lawyers continue to face gender and
  "work/life" challenges, regardless where they
  went to law school. And just as more women are
  moving out of law or into alternative law tracks
  than men.

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• Today's lawyers of both genders appear to be
  moving around more. Whatever the impetus, the
  trend is toward alternatives, mobility and
  flexibility.And if the HLS lawyers are any
  indication, one very bright light at the end of
  the tunnel is lawyers continue to value their law
  degree, however they use it, and whatever
  compromises they make in doing so.
• This article Even Harvard Law School Lawyers
  Face Gender Based Obstacles and Varied Career
  Trajectories first appeared on  LawCrossing is
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