Shattering the Legal Glass Ceiling

Paper Summary:

This paper begins by exploring the history of women lawyers, including their fight to gain the right to practice law and be accepted into law schools. The paper discusses the various problems that these women face, such as wage disparities, sexual harassment and mistreatment in the courtroom and proposes solutions to these problems. The paper then focuses on the biggest problem that women face in the legal profession the balance of career vs. family. Finally, the paper discusses how women lawyers are being denied opportunities for promotions and partnerships because of the glass ceiling that the traditional law firm structure creates.

From the Paper:

"Authors like Dr. Edward H. Clarke avidly argued against women working in America. He claimed that women who exerted energy away from their reproductive organs and into their brain would threaten their health and their ability to create children (Drachman 38). The concept of a female being a lawyer was unfathomable to men as they felt that a woman was naturally intended to bear children and not to participate in the public sphere. In 1875, as Chief Justice Ryan of the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a woman's application to the bar, he stated that judicial admission of women would result in a "sweeping revolution of social order" (Drachman 29). Finally, a major factor that played a role during this era was the fear that once women were allowed to practice, a slippery slope would give them the right to vote."

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