You Don't Look Like a Lawyer by Tsedale M. Melaku

Author:Tsedale M. Melaku [Melaku, Tsedale M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2019-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

Boys Don’t Cry

As mentioned earlier, affiliation with the boys’ club bears a direct correlation to the allocation of substantive work assignments, secluding particular contacts and channeling access to those cloistered within the club’s network. Insiders get first dibs on the more desirable opportunities; outsiders, which often include the majority of female attorneys and attorneys of color, pick up the remainders. An alarming number of my respondents, in fact, argued that women are frequently reduced to playing a “service role” in firm activities. As partner Xena described,

I think to a lesser extent, at least in my group, although I guess it happens sometimes, is the way responsibilities are divvied out, who’s responsible for sending out calendar invites, making sure that things are in place for the big meeting, stuff like that. I think female associates probably feel like they get the bulk of that type of work.

By requesting female associates to take on traditionally gendered tasks, a division between male and female associates is established that disadvantages the latter, perpetuates stereotypes about their “inherent” abilities, and of course reinforces male privilege to the ease and benefit of the patriarchal structure. When one is an attorney out “getting refreshments” or “organizing a client dinner,” effectively support staff functions, one is clearly not doing the “thinking work” of an actual lawyer or is competing with those male associates who are.

Apart from the outright damage of relegating accomplished female professionals to such an archaic articulation of sexist framing, the tendency to divide unskilled support staff tasks in this manner begs the question, What work are female associates finally allocated once the boys’ club has received its first glance, all the refreshments have been acquired, the meetings have been organized, and the copies have been made? It reflects the counterproductive myopia of traditional gender framing, which saddles firms with an inability to recognize, use, or even adequately manage the skills of a team of diverse men and women.

Kallisto, a sixth-year associate at the time she was compelled to leave her firm for this and similarly confining reasons, described an encounter with a male superior that elucidates the subtle ways in which stereotypes about the roles of women, and black women in particular, seep into everyday interactions:

I was on a deal one time with a partner who I absolutely loved. This partner, he was great, and we’re on the phone, we’re trying to reach counsel on the other side, and he’s like, “Oh, she’s probably out just getting her nails done. Why is she not answering her phone?” And I thought to myself, “If this was a male, he would never assume that the reason why this male is not answering this call is because of anything other than something being work-related.” But for a woman, and this happened often, and this is just a small example because this used to always happen with women on the other side of deals in positions of power, the partners would always assume that they were not responsive for superficial reasons.

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