Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: What Worked in School Won’t Work in Business
When I began taking steps to help build community for women criminal defense attorneys, one thing that was very important to me was that I never wanted to create a culture that was angry, that was divisive, or that encouraged griping and complaining. What I did want to create was a place for positive, supportive, and inclusive dialogue.
I do not subscribe to a “poor me” mentality when discussing the issues of distinction between men and women. And I believe women gain nothing by engaging in a blame game when confronting why disparity exists between men and women professionally. True change only comes from understanding our own roles and responsibility in contributing to the disparity and making a decision to change.
In that spirit I have been avidly reading articles and research about women in business. I just came across one that I thought was worth sharing. Whitney Johnson and Tara Mohr just posted an article on Harvard Business Review Blog Network, “Women Need to Realize Work Isn’t School” which lays out a compelling argument that women approach business with a flawed belief structure. The article cites a recent Catalyst study which found that women account for 51.4% of middle managers in the United States but only 4.2% of Fortune 500 CEO’s.
These are certainly alarming statistics, and in line with the statistics of women in law. And the fact that these stats are still so lopsided in light of the fact that academic institutions, including law schools, are producing more women graduates than ever before is thought provoking to say the least. Johnson and Mohr argue that in order for women “[t]o be successful, we must now do the very thing we were always taught not to be: be disruptive.” They list five areas that may have won high marks in a school setting but do a disservice to women in career advancement and warrant some disruptive behavior:
Figure out how to challenge and influence authority
Prepare, but also learn to improvise
Find effective forms of self-promotion
Welcome a less prescribed, full of surprise, career path
Go for being respected, not just liked
They note that school rewards women for figuring out what the teacher wants but in the workplace that translates into asking what they refer to as “good girl” questions. “To become an all-star you need to develop a new skill; you need to learn how to challenge and influence authority rather than simply giving the authority figures what they want.”
They discuss the importance of effective self-promotion in light of a culture that creates a double-bind for women. Meaning that women have to do a better job than a male counterpart to stay ahead, but are shamed if they toot their own horns. The answer is to find forms of self-promotion that work for women… which may be more subtle than those that typically work for men. Without question self-promotion is one of the most important skills needed to achieve success in the business of law, so learning how to do this effectively is critical.
The point here is to learn what we are doing to contribute to our own setbacks. I am not suggesting that women are to blame for this disparity either. There are certainly influences that are outside our control and I am not blind to the fact that gender discrimination exists. The bottom line is that we can’t control the people around us… but we can control ourselves. There is more and more research that supports the notion that our culture or society promotes a flawed belief structure in women that does not serve us in business. Let’s learn from it and work to change it. So take the old “good girl” school rules and throw them out the window. They worked in school, but they don’t work in business.