Blog 26

Men have an aggressive nature and more of a get it done now attitude. This attitude helps assist women lawyers. Men are needed as mentors/teaching aids for women lawyers because clients expect to see a male as their lawyer. Since men are stereotyped as more aggressive and more assertive than women, people do not expect a woman to be as strong in court as a man. It is considered a gendered organization because females need male reinforcement in order to please their clients. A profession in law has always been stereotyped as a "mans job" or a "mans world." There are more men in law than women and so assisting women with legal questions is just helping a colleague. If a man checks in on a female colleague, they are only being helpful.

Blog 25

Sexualized behavior as a "weapon in the arsenal" could always be affective where is that person's sense of self-respect? After watching the movie, Erin Brockovich, she did dress more provocatively than the other women in the office and they thought she got her way all time with the boss because of how she dressed. However, it was her attitude and never giving up until she got what she wanted. Some could say that if she not dressed that way then it would be a different story but she became very successful at what she did.

Any woman who would use sexualized behavior as a "weapon in the arsenal" is pretty pathetic. If that is the only way you can succeed in life then you must have missed the boat. Women get bashed on enough in the media and in advertisements for being a sex icon and are used in men's ads when they have nothing to do with the ad. Yes, women can get whatever they want by using themselves as objects but that will never get them anywhere in the world.

Last Blogs

Blog 22

Obama said, “Sonia Sotomayor has proved you can achieve anything under the equality of the law.” Sotomayor has been publicly attacked by the media and by other politicians. It is the first time we have had a Latina woman appointed to the Supreme Court. Women have achieved high positions in this country and because Sotomayor is not white, she is the enemy. According to one of the videos, the only reason why Obama picked her is because she was Latina . Why would the President of the United States just pick someone because of their race? He is in charge of our entire country and he is not going to put himself on the line by hiring someone he does not think is qualified. Our country has jumped through many hurdles in order for men and women to be treated equal and this is just bringing us back to that time.

Conservatives already started tearing apart Sotomayor’s personal life in order to try and show America that she is not right for the position. Rumors have spread that she is a member of La Raza, a near terrorist organization and that she is trying to take over a bunch of Western states and then turn them over to Mexico . We have had a very hard time with illegal aliens in this country and because Sotomayor is Latina , that is of course going to the first attack against her. There are so many Latina women who are famous leading actresses and they do not receive criticism like Sotomayor. People are so used to every politician being white and if they are a woman, they are white. Obama stated, “There is not a black America , a white America , a Mexican America or Asian America, it is the United States of America .

Blog 23

Fashion is huge in the media. Everyone criticizes women in the media. Women lawyers and politicians are always seen in the public eye. Michelle Obama has been criticized enough but her clothing has been a major talk in the media. Clothing and style was an important political weapon right from Martha Washington. Dolly Madison is the first to put clothing on the map; she had the charismatic figure which had a larger than life figure. She projected emotional and psychological messages by authority. It has even become more important for the first lady and symbolism has been the main idea in the media.

Michelle Obama is a conservative woman and a very intelligent woman. She knows as a woman of color that people will be watching her closely. Her style is very modern and in the context of the white house. She fits into the big mainstream and the way women dress in the workplace. She tends to wear a lot of dresses and not a lot of boxy outfits that many women wear. She is set apart from all other politicians who wear very conservative suit clothing. There have been many strong comments about Michelle Obama’s wardrobe because she is a black woman and she chooses to show off her curves. Other women who have been in the white house have worn suit outfits and do not show off their curves so they are not attacked in the media.

Blog 24

Women are taught and told in law school that they need to appear firm, powerful and sharp. Men already have the tough exterior and so in court a man is going to feel like he already runs the place. Men also have deep voice which can make them sound and appear more intimidating than a female. After talking t a friend of mine who is in law school at USC, she told me that the stereotype women get there is that they are lesbians and unattractive. She told me the first day of class the men stared at her in astonishment because she is an attractive girl. The comment they made is that they didn’t expect to have a smart and gorgeous women in law school.

According to these guys, women can be attractive and smart. It becomes a double standard in the justice system. If a woman wants to be a police officer she is considered manly and a lesbian because it’s supposed to be a man’s job and women aren’t strong enough to handle the job. It’s the same with men and women working against each other on a case in court, men try to make the female lawyer look powerless or too emotional because men try to play off that they are emotionless.

Blog 31

Balancing work/family in the legal profession is extremely difficult. Men and women who work in the legal world need attention just as much from their clients as do their family. For example, lawyers end up forming a family relationship with their clients because they spend so many long hours together planning for the trial. Bringing work home is normal for lawyers and it only puts a strain on their relationship with their family. When does the line need to be drawn? People who work in the legal profession have a lot of work on their plate every day and never know what is going to come their way.

Female lawyers are given the option to work part-time in order to be there for their children/family and balance work as a second priority. People who work in the legal profession do not choose to work part-time because they know they will not be able to climb up the ladder to a promotion. Promotions are only given to the hard working full-time individuals that make work their life and not their family. It is not fair for a smart woman to feel that she can not be promoted because of her obligations to family.

Blog 37

It is extremely difficult for a woman lawyer to balance family life and life as a lawyer. Life as a lawyer is basically a life in itself. There is so much time and dedication put into being a lawyer and families tend to come second. According to Charting Our Progress, data indicates that more and more firms are allowing part-time schedules, but women testifying in the 2003 hearings still reported that choosing the part-time option posed professional risks. Women reported that if they took the part-time position to spend more time with their family they may not be able to move up in the profession. Women expressed that if they wanted a promotion it would not go to a part-time scheduled individual because they are not considered a full-time lawyer. Technology can also help balance career and family responsibilities. Technology has helped attorneys with parent and/or child care responsibilities to telecommute.

The report also identified barriers preventing the full integration and equal protection of women in all aspects of the legal profession. Men still hold the great majority of leadership positions in the profession and overwhelmingly surpass women lawyers in compensation. Some reported that women lawyers are too emotional, insufficiently aggressive and not as serious as men. For example, women attorneys from mid-sized towns in New York in Florida testified that judges and bailiffs called them “baby” or “honey” and referred to them by their first names while addressing males by their titles. English found this same cycle of abuse towards women in her own data. English found that men are still making more money in legal professions than women and are not treated with the same respect and even with less respect.

Blog 38

Florence Ellinwood Allen was an American judge and the first woman to serve on a State Supreme Court. She was also one of the first two women to serve as a federal judge. At first, she was not a success. When she first began, she could not afford to pay for anything in her office except for two chairs and a borrowed typewriter. Allen needed some experience in order to be successful so she did some work for a local Legal Aid Society. She not only got experience but involved with an important case about suffrage.

In March 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Allen to the United States of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Allen’s supporters sought to have her appointed to the United States Supreme Court during Harry S. Truman’s presidency but Truman opposed having a woman sitting in the highest court of the land. She later found that Truman was not the reason for this decision. He did not appoint because it had to do with his belief that having a woman around would make the male judges uncomfortable. Allen was not chosen for any further promotions until 1958. She became the first woman to serve as chief judge of a United States Court of Appeals. She retired in 1959 but still kept her title in case she was available to step in if needed.

Dorothy Frookswas an American author, publisher, military figure and actress. An intriguing figure for most of her long life, Frooks was active in public affairs and in the military throughout her life. Frooks was a suffragist, lawyers and judge advocate in the U.S. army during World War II. She became one of the most versatile of women lawyers. She graduated from Hamilton Law School in Chicago and earned her master’s degree from NYU. As she was practicing law, she won a suspended sentence for a 16 year old girl who had killed the man who raped her at the age of 12.