There are a few things that need to be changed so that women can find a balance between work life and family life and so that more equality can be exercised between men and women.
First of all, more women need to pursue legal professions as well as leadership roles in law firms. And men need to allow women to do so without assuming that they’ve gotten there by sleeping their way to the top.
English suggests needs to change is childcare situations. We spoke about the difficulties in finding affordable, safe, and reasonable childcare when we read Chaudry’s book “Putting Children First.” However, the women in English’s book differ in that they have stable jobs and are not low-wage earners. If childcare came as a benefit of jobs in the legal arena, women would not have to worry about having to leave their jobs to care for sick children. There needs to be more flexibility, as I have said time and time again.
Women want to get into firms and develop their practices quickly before they have children. Part of the problem in striving to achieve career/family balance centers on the traditional career model for lawyers in which time devoted to work is an uncontested priority. There needs to be a change in the image of the “ideal lawyer.”
English sees the future as consisting of equal opportunity and representation for men and women and suggests a number of policies and practices that would enforce this. She advocates for performance reviews because if reviews are rigorous and detailed, they may alleviate some of the concern about female lawyers’ competence. There also, according to Enlgish, needs to be transparency in policies, especially when it comes to flexibility in work schedules. If policies are made, they need to be written down and shared with everyone. Additionally, if everyone is aware of flexible work arrangements, the workplace can alleviate the misunderstandings that can occur. English also argues that employees should know who gets what assignments and why, and people should be given a variety of assignments at varying skills.
About Me
- Kasey
- I will be graduating from Arizona State University in December. Even though I feel like I have made the most of my college career, I am scared about what the future holds for me. Graduate studies are in my future, but what I ultimately want to do with my life, well, that is in limbo. I want to make a difference. I want to be challenged and challenge other people. I am an alumni of Omega Phi Alpha, National Service Sorority. I served as president in my final year, and it was definitely a challenge. Now, I am helping to found an organization on campus called Running Start, which is a non-profit geared toward getting young women interested in running for political office.
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