For more than a year, Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress spearheaded research about the way Americans live and work.  The resulting comprehensive Shriver Report, http://awomansnation.com, released earlier this month, found that for the first time in our nation’s history, women make up half of the workforce and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families.  The website showcasing the report boldly touts, “The battle of the sexes is over.  Men and women overwhelmingly agree on what they want in life, and how they view their roles in marriage, as parents, and in their jobs.”

Just a week after the Shriver Report’s release, Joanne Lipman reacted with a rather frank and insightful New York Times Op-Ed piece, “The Mismeasure of Woman”, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/opinion/24lipman.html.  Ms. Lipman takes issue with the suggestion that we are now living in a woman’s world because, as she sees it, progress for women has stalled and even taken a step backward in recent years.  After citing a litany of examples (women still earn 77 cents for each dollar earned by a man, only 15 women run Fortune 500 companies, women make up almost half of all associates but only 18.3% of the partners in law firms), she explores why this has happened. 

Ms. Lipman traces the root of the decline to the aftermath of 9/11.  She contends that, as the “war in Iraq tore America apart” and the “Internet gave everyone a soapbox” in which the “louder, the more offensive the better”, the online and then mainstream conversation about women degenerated.  She backs up this accusation with several examples - examples which, admittedly, I am shocked by, now that I see them assembled in print, but which I very well wouldn’t have even noticed hearing them live.  What this all reveals, Ms. Lipman concludes, is that while the numbers might have improved, the attitudes have not.

Perhaps Ms. Lipman’s comments offer some new insight into the questions that IWL (along with numerous other organizations and commentators) has been exploring for the last several years.  Questions like, why are there so few women judges, equity partners, rainmakers, Bar Commissioners, etc.?  For decades, women attorneys have made up a significant portion of the legal workforce, yet they occupy a much smaller fraction of the positions at the top of the legal career path.

 A recent survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers confirms that little to no progress has been made in the last year: “Fourth Annual Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms” http://www.nawl.org/Assets/Documents/2009+Survey.pdf (survey);
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS134533+26-Oct-2009+BW20091026 (article summarizing survey findings). The survey’s findings include:

• Women were much more likely to be affected by recent layoffs because they were more likely to hold part-time jobs;
• Pay disparity between men and women still exists at all levels;
• Few women are significant rainmakers;
• Women are still under-represented in the upper levels of law firms. (”For over 20 years women have graduated from law schools and started careers in private practice at roughly the same rate as men, yet women continue to be markedly under-represented in the leadership ranks of firms. Women constitute fewer than 16% of equity partners, only 6% of firm managing partners, and barely 15% of the members of a firm’s highest governing committee - percentages which have not changed from 2008 and have barely advanced since the Survey began exploring these data in 2006.”)

There are so many partial explanations for this phenomenon, and they all have some legitimacy:  the mommy track; the reluctance of women-versus men-to promote themselves; the catch 22 of too few women leader role models; remaining vestiges of overt discrimination; and others. 

I think we need to add to this list:  our own attitudes toward women.

Have we individually and as a society become numb to demeaning comments about women?  Do we laugh politely when we hear a gender-based criticism of opposing counsel?  Do we unwittingly attribute unfair stereotypes to women attorneys-like indecisive, flighty or bitchy?  Do we subconsciously start with the assumption, barring evidence to the contrary, that a man is more qualified than a woman to be a judge, or Attorney General, or managing partner? 

All of us-men and women-need to carefully examine our own prejudices and vigilantly guard against the casual intrusion of such prejudices (whether ours or others’) into our daily interactions.  This is essential to maintain the integrity of our legal profession.  And, it is essential to eliminate an unseen but ever-present impediment to women attorneys’ leadership track.

Submitted by Deborah Nelson
Member of the Board of Directors, Idaho Women Lawyers, Inc.
Partner, Givens Pursley LLP

Idaho State Bar Annual Meeting

Friday, July 10, 8:30-11:45 a.m.

Sponsored by Idaho Women Lawyers, Inc.

 

I.             Overview

A.         8:30-9:15 AM

B.         Topics:  Title IX history and legal overview, developing case law and regulations

C.         Speaker(s): Kristen Galles, Title IX litigation; Linda Mangel, principal consultant, Education Equity Group

II.            Local Issues/Statistics – Glenda Talbutt, Brady Law Chtd., Moderator

A.         9:15-10:00 AM

B.         Topics:  Title IX compliance policies/gender equity policies at various high schools and smaller colleges in Idaho. 

C.         Speaker(s):  Prof. Shelley Lucas, BSU associate professor, Department of Kinesiology, Chair of the Gender Equity Subcommittee of Boise State’s Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Committee from 2001-2007; Elaine Eberharter-Maki, Eberharter-Maki & Tappen, PA; Connie Skogrand, Mountain View High girls basketball coach

 

BREAK  – 10:00 - 10:15 AM

III.          Open Discussion/Policy Forum – Kristen Galles, Moderator

A.         10:15-11:45 AM

B.         Topics:  Contemporary Issues in Title IX (e.g., Are more women participating in college athletics?  Have men’s sports suffered?  Do women coaches have fewer opportunities? How does college football affect Title IX analysis?)

                Panelists: Mike Prater, Idaho Statesman sports editor; Susan Buxton, Moore, Smith, Buxton & Turcke, Chtd., and member, Whitman College, Board of Overseers; Christine Von Tol, BSU senior women’s athletics administrator; Linda Mangel, Prof. Shelley Lucas, BSU associate professor, Department of Kinesiology, Chair of the Gender Equity Subcommittee of Boise State’s Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Committee from 2001-2007.

IWL would like to congratulate Leslie Goddard, the 2009 recipient of the Kate Feltham Award. This award is intended to honor individuals who have made extraordinary efforts to promote equal rights and opportunities for women and minorities within the legal profession and legal justice system in Idaho. Past recipients include Cecil Andrus, Mary Smith, Susan Graham, Cathy Silak, Debora Kristensen, Betty Richardson, Kelly Miller and Deb Nelson.

The namesake of this award, Kate Feltham, has a remarkable place in Idaho’s history. Kate E. Neville was born in Adams, New York on December 20, 1859, just before the Civil War began. She was one of the first graduates of the Iowa State Normal School in Cedar Rapids. She taught school in Ackley, Iowa before moving to Idaho in 1893.

On September 21, 1893, Kate Neville married Lot Feltham in Nampa. Lot served as city attorney for Caldwell from 1893 until 1895. While living in Caldwell, Kate was active in her community and a leader for women’s rights.

* She founded the first free public reading room in Caldwell.
* She was the founding president of the Progress Club, a forerunner of the Future Club in Caldwell.
* She was one of the leaders in the drive to give Idaho women the vote and served as the president of the Caldwell branch of the Idaho Equal Suffrage Association and first vice president of the state organization.
* She taught English and public speaking at the College of Idaho (Albertson College).

By 1910, Kate and Lot were living in the Weiser area. In the 1910 census Kate is listed as a fruit farmer. She was admitted to the practice of law on September 22, 1914, the fifth woman admitted to practice law in Idaho. In 1926 she was appointed the prosecuting attorney for Washington County in Weiser, becoming the first female county prosecutor in Idaho. She remained in the Weiser area after she and her husband divorced. She continued to practice law into the early thirties and died in 1936.

Kate Feltham was an early pioneer for women’s rights and women in the legal profession.

The award will be presented at IWL’s annual board meeting on (date to be announced) at Yen Ching restaurant in Boise for a cocktail hour, dinner and presentation of the award.

Congratulations Leslie!