Last Friday's Report on Business Magazine excerpted Susan Pinker's new book The Sexual Paradox in an article entitled Legal dropouts
In the article, she argues that no matter how much they pay, law firms just can't hang on to their young female associates. One reason, she explains, is because the environment itself is deeply hostile to family life. "Fed up with the hours and unable to meet brutal work demands even after making partner or after choosing in-house positions that would allow them to work a little less, they'd eventually tossed it all to stay home with fragile children, to start businesses or university degrees that would allow them more control of their time. All successful women, they wanted to work but found law practice unforgiving. One lawyer in her late 40s, Louise Fournier, avowed that if her 19-year-old daughter chose to go into law, she'd go into mourning."
Ms. Pinker was here earlier to talk about the retreat of female lawyers and why even though HR policies are friendlier today, they're no match for a business culture that's deeply hostile to family and women's values.
Susan Pinker is a developmental psychologist and journalist who writes about interpersonal and ethical issues in the workplace in her Problem Solving column in The Globe and Mail. She has worked as a clinical psychologist for 25 years and has taught at the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University.
She lives in Montreal with her husband and three children. Her new book, The Sexual Paradox, is available in stores now.
Judith Pereira:
Thank you Susan for joining us today. We've got quite a few question to get through so let's get started with Jill van Vugt from Toronto.
Jill Van Vugt from Toronto writes:
My law firm is willing to talk about strategies for making our workplace more accommodating for women who want to have families. However, the discussion often begins with the suggestion that "you can't have it all." The men at our firm cite the fact that they are unable to spend as much time with their kids as they'd like to. Inevitably, the discussion takes on a tone that women can either choose to be exemplary partners at the firm or they can choose to be exemplary mothers. Ultimately, it's about individual choices.
It is difficult to refute this argument without attacking the underlying culture of legal work. When one gets into "the culture argument" the problem becomes insurmountable because the firm will not sacrifice its own profitability simply to set an example of equality to other firms. Doesn't this bear some truth? Firms will have to sacrifice profitability for equality?
Thank you for your thougths.
Susan Pinker replies:
This situation is comparable to going to a well reviewed restaurant and seeing only one item on the menu. The message that your law firm is giving is that only one option is the right one. As it happens, that option suits only one model of work, the one created for what I call "the vanilla male standard." This standard was set when few lawyers were female, and hasn't been adjusted since. More women than men will take to their heels when they find it doesn't suit their notions of success, but they'll lose some talented men too, if they don't consider options. When law firms or any business hemorrhages talent because they won't adjust, this also affects profits.
There are alternative lenses that are just as valid. For example, some law firms are shifting their reward system to project or file-based work. This often benefits women, who want some flexibility, and less "face time" and can nonetheless be extremely disciplined and productive. Other law firms, though few to date, are taking a leaf from medicine's book, where several highly trained professionals are expected to spell each other during evenings and weekends, using a call system.Law firms are often losing their best talent, people in whom they have invested, not just in the hiring process but in grooming their skills as they develop as professionals. I think that only when firms recognize the impact on the bottom line, though, will they consider alternatives.
