Blog 24

The most recognized and combated gender stereotype that affects women lawyers is the thought that women are not "tough" enough to be successful lawyers. One aspect of toughness that women face in this field has to do with the stereotype that men are more tough on their dedication to the job than women are. This stereotype stems from the very real discrepancies between men and women in regards to the amount of private life responsibilities that each have thus the different limits on time they have to dedicate to work. While in recent times the difference in private life responsibilities have started to equalize, the fact that women have had the majority of private life responsibilities and many still do is why this sign of toughness is still a very real obstacle for women lawyers to overcome. It is hard for women to combat this stereotype because it forces them to essentially chose private life over work life in order to keep up the appearance of tough dedication in relation to their male counterparts who are more than willing and even expected to take advantage of their lack of private responsibilities. one way that women are starting to combat this idea of tough dedication is through the push for companies to provide more help in the areas of private life for women such as child care and also by bringing more awareness to the amount of juggling that women have to do in order to prove themselves in this area. Another aspect of toughness is the way that men are expected to be more harsh and to the point which are valued characteristics for a lawyer while women are seen as more nice and not as able to get their point across. Men hold the gendered expectation to be more strict and commanding in their style of work which is why they are more valued in the harsh and political atmosphere of law while women hold the gendered expectation to be less commanding in their style of work due to their motherly ways, characteristics that are not valued in the law world. These gendered expectations help to hold women on the outskirts of full acceptance into the law field because others are reluctant to allow them to prove that they can overcome such gendered characteristics.

Blog 23

The way one dresses has a lot to do with the first impressions they make on others which is based on what stereotypes people hold. The reason that women lawyers and politicians are so scrutinized for their dress is because these fields have such an ingrained sense of powerful styling that are associated with them that is very male dominated such as "the power suit". In order for females to make their mark in these fields they had to dress in such a way to represent themselves as being as powerful as their male counterparts as the perception of ones power is very important in the law and political world. When females started out in these fields in growing numbers they had to dress in masculine styles of clothing in order to help their chances of being seen as powerful before they would have the chance to prove their power and competence. As females gained numbers in these fields they were able to recognize how their style of dress was affecting their sense of self in a negative manner because they were being forced to conform to the masculine ways that dominated thier profession so they started to dress in more feminine ways. This change in style of dressing was important for the women because it helped to assert their gender into these fields while at the same time down playing the association with power and masculine styles of dress.