I spent a number of hours this week speaking with women lawyers of various ages and stages in their careers—senior associates, newly minted counsel and income partners, and highly experienced, long-term income and equity partners. And the verdict was unanimous—all are deeply frustrated by the continuing lack of progress of women in the legal profession.
More than thirty years after women began making up roughly half of all law school graduates, women still earn significantly less than their male counterparts and still hold a shockingly limited number of equity partnerships and positions of power in law firms. Just “Google” the most recent NAWL survey to get the specifics if you need them, but, if you are working in the law, you do not need a survey to know that something is not quite right. To be fair, this sad state of affairs is not limited to the law; however, there is no doubt that the legal profession lags behind corporate America in creating opportunities for women to advance.
So what can be done to move the profession forward? Women complaining and citing the dismal statistics clearly has not worked, and has, in fact, been largely counterproductive. The time for casting blame, or wishing and hoping that things will improve simply because they “should,” is long past. Women need to take action, take control of their own careers and, in a purposeful way, seek out and engage others, particularly men in power, as “allies” to help them.
As a noun, the term “ally” is defined as “one with whom you associate for a common purpose or cause” or “an associate in a common activity.” Relevant synonyms include: partner, helper, collaborator, confederate and co-worker. In theory at least, men and women who work together in law firms are, by definition, allies. However, it appears that all too often men and women simply do not see each other as such.
What can women do to be recognized by men as desirable allies? Women can learn to step outside their comfort zones and actively promote their capabilities and accomplishments in ways that are both authentic and effective. They can learn to ask for what they want in clear and direct ways and advocate for themselves in the same way they advocate for their clients. Women can make explicit that their careers are as important to them as they are to their male counterparts. Finally, women can make clear that they recognize and are fully prepared to work together with men to achieve common goals: to develop new business, and to meet the needs of new and existing clients and thereby advance the firm’s interests. In this way women will advance not only their own careers, but also the careers of the men with whom they collaborate.
What can men do to become better allies to women? Men can learn to recognize and be aware of how and when gender bias may be at work in the choices they make every day, both big and small, from whom they invite to lunch or to take with them on a pitch to whom to assign a new, high profile matter. They can learn to act as mentors and, more importantly, as sponsors or champions for women, actively advocating for their promotion to partner and other important positions in leadership. Finally, men can accept and acknowledge the growing body of research that indicates that the most successful organizations are those that have a significant percentage (30% or greater) of women in senior leadership positions and, therefore, the ultimate long-term success of their firms depends upon them taking action to promote women to positions of power and authority.
What can law firms do to help promote and facilitate men and women working together as allies? Some systemic changes likely to help this process include:
When men and women, with the help and support of the firms in which they work, come to recognize their common purpose, they cannot help but conclude that they are natural allies who, by working together, will ultimately do better and accomplish more, both individually and collectively for the benefit of their firms, than they ever could have on their own.