Idealists choose legal careers because they want to be agents of change. But an eye-opening Florida Bar survey on gender bias suggests the profession in many ways remains stuck in the past.
Leon Circuit Judge Karen Gievers remembers the day she was the lead counsel, and the only woman lawyer, in a trial in a Miami courtroom.
“Somebody wanted a sidebar conversation and the judge said, ‘gentlemen approach the bench…’”
Gievers froze. She could feel the eyes of the women jurors watching her next move.
“The guys got up to the bench and then I said, excuse me your honor, were you intending to exclude me? And, he says, ‘oh, of course not, counsel.’ And that took care of it.”
That was in the 1980s when Gievers was in private practice. Now that she’s a sitting judge she prefers not to comment on the Young Lawyers Division survey that is causing so much buzz.
But it’s a typical example of the 43 percent of women lawyers who reported experiencing gender bias on the job. A frequent complaint was being mistaken for a court reporter, or being called “blondie,” “honey,” or “sweetheart.”
Young Lawyers Division president-elect Katherine Miller Hurst says the survey shows the problems go even deeper.
“I think a lot of women and young women lawyers were not shocked at some of the statistics and the number of responses and the percentage of women who had felt bias and discrimination. It’s really the ferocity of what’s going on out there that’s shocking.”
Tallahassee lawyer Twyla Sketchley knows how shocking. She says an opposing counsel once called her the “B” word in front of a judge, and the judge went along.
“I have been patted on the butt by my opposing counsel. I have been called sweetie and honey. I have been told I’m getting too emotional when I am advocating strongly for my clients. And in one case, when I was an intern and still in law school, I had an opposing counsel making very derogatory comments about my body in open court.”
Florida Bar President Ramon Abadin stresses the profession has made great strides. Women make up 37 percent of lawyers in Florida. They hold top leadership positions in the American and Florida Bar associations.
But he says they are dramatically underrepresented in what he calls the “power positions.” Studies show they make up just 18 percent of equity partnerships at law firms.
“We don’t pay the women who do the same thing that the men do the same as the men. Why? Why is that happening? What can we do about it? We need to talk about it.”
Tallahassee lawyer Martha Barnett is a former American Bar Association president who is often cited as a role model. But Barnett says she expected to see more progress after blazing the trail.
She’s worried about complacency.
“Women of my generation may not have done enough to women, to our daughters, or their daughters, about educating them about this fight is not over. It’s about merit, it’s about consistency.”
Miller, the young lawyer division president-elect, says the responses on the survey show women are paying a high price for devoting time to children and family.
“People coming back from maternity leave and being told it’s a vacation. People coming back and trying to breast feed and not having an appropriate location. People needing to delay a trial because they are on maternity leave or needing breaks in a trial to pump breast milk.”
Miller says women lawyers are migrating to government jobs or less demanding work so they can control their schedules. Lawyers don’t punch a time clock, but in the private sector they’re rewarded for billable hours.
And law firms, Miller says, are structured to reflect that.
“I think when you’re at a small firm, or a mid-sized firm or a large firm, it’s hard to accommodate someone who doesn’t want put in, you know, hour after hour after hour and grind it out in the practice.”
Sketchley says the problem will fester until men and women in the profession learn to be more aggressive about calling out the bad behavior.
“So, you’ve got a pay differential. You’ve got women who are having to put up with the kind of behavior you see in this report. At a certain point, you just say, enough’s enough.”
Meanwhile, Miller says the Young Lawyers Division is pushing for the creation of a standing committee to fight the problem.
