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.