Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: The Grit Project
The American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession just launched a new initiative called The Grit Project. The project is an educational toolkit that is aimed at helping women develop the right mindset to enhance the retention and promotion of women lawyers. The thinking behind the Grit Project is that traits known to be associated with success in law can be developed in women. This is in contrast to what many erroneously believed were traits that one was born with and coincidentally viewed as exclusively masculine. The Grit Project takes up the task of training and educating women lawyers to develop the very traits that research has shown are consistently found in the women succeeding in law. The Commission on Women makes a strong case based on science that women leaders in law share two important traits:
Recent science suggests that grit is often on the short list of answers successful women lawyers provide when asked to describe the traits that led to their success.
Similarly, a growth mindset, or the belief that one’s abilities are flexible entities that can be developed and improved through effort, is a trait that many highly successful women lawyers rely on to navigate challenging situations in the workplace.
Based on this research the Grit Project sets out to teach women these critical traits. The goal is to change the dismal reality that, in spite of the fact that women and men are entering law schools in equal numbers; the high percentage of women entering the profession has not translated into staying power and equal advancement.
Download the brochure here and the toolkit here.
The toolkit includes:
Tools to help women lawyers apply the grit approach to their law careers.
Discussion scenarios such as how to handle speaking up in class, the job search, and a bad grade on a midterm paper.
Resources for law schools, bar associations, law firms, and women’s groups to introduce these concepts.
Program agendas, PowerPoints, handouts, and speaker recommendations.
Future reading and learning opportunities.
There are individual scenarios for women to prepare for certain real life circumstances, videos, conference and program agendas, a grit test, a mindset quiz, and coming soon are lists of speakers. Do your own grit test and start talking about what you can do proactively in your community to change the playing field for women in law. From where I sit, the more we work together to ensure the success of more women in the field, the more we each ensure our own success. The old belief that it is every woman for herself just isn’t going to work anymore. Bravo to the Commission for Women in the Profession!