Post #26

Men play a huge role in assisting women lawyers in establishing credibility in their jobs in the form of male backing. English says that, “women sometimes find that they need male colleagues to step in to grapple with unruly opposing counsel or endorse their advice to clients to get them on boards.”

One of the women said that if a client is not on board with what she is advising she goes to a male employee for reinforcement, and she also believes that it is better that she go to a male as opposed to a fellow female. Another said that she has to go to a male partner for validation when dealing with clients. If she suggests something, she always makes a point to say that she has already talked to her male partner about it, thinking that this will ensure her clients’ approval.

Sometimes female lawyers have to deal with opposing counsel that tries to discredit her. One woman said that an opposing attorney was really obnoxious to her and sarcastic with her until she had her male colleague sit in on a deposition. As soon as there was male supervision, the opposing counsel did not act negatively towards her.

Some women expressed that they felt like male backing was essential in their day-to-day working. However, just by turning to male colleagues, these women are diminishing their credibility because it almost seems like they are not smart enough or strong enough to handle everything on their own.

This absolutely plays into the idea of law firms as gendered organizations. If women have to constantly answer to men to establish credibility, there is a hierarchy built into the organization. Like I argued in a previous post when we were discussing prisons, Britton said that gendered organizations employ agency. Agency includes “all the interactions in which workers are involved that intentionally or not, invoke gender or reproduce gender inequality, as well as processes of identity construction through which individuals come to see themselves as ‘appropriately’ gendered through their work.” Essentially this involves men and women working in their own gender-based interest. In the case of law firms, the gender based interest means women constantly seeking the approval and support of male colleagues.