Mujeres en la justicia
By Anonymous • February 02, 2007 •Internships and Clerkships
By Sina, a 2L at Yale Law School Do not be fooled by appearance. That is the first lesson Buenos Aires, Argentina taught this chica. Sure, I was enchanted by the large luscious steaks, the ubiquitous fine wine, the gorgeous people, and stately buildings. I wanted to believe in a place where a five course dinner costs 30 pesos (US$15) and where I could spend all afternoon in a spa, exit manicured, waxed, and massaged for less than 18 pesos (US$6). But in the end, sometimes the sweet smell is exactly what tells you something has gone terribly sour. For…
The UN as a Family-Friendly Employer
By Anonymous • February 02, 2007 •Internships and Clerkships
By a Second-Year Law Student This summer I am working as an intern at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, the Netherlands. Although I am just working in one of the isolated ad hoc Tribunals, my understanding is that UN policy is universally applicable. Therefore, I imagine that my experience here could be representative of other UN branches. However, this information is the kind to be taken with a grain of salt, since I myself have not actually had the experience of navigating the bureaucracy while having a family. After all, it isn’t really…
Impressive Progress Alongside Persistent Problems
By Lynn Hecht Schafran • February 02, 2007 •Guest Bloggers and Profiles of Women in the Law
In April the New York Committee on Women in the Courts celebrated twenty years of working to implement the recommendations of the New York Task Force on Women in the Courts. New York’s Chief Judge Judith Kaye encapsulated these two decades with a perfect aphorism, “Impressive Progress Alongside Persistent Problems” – an aphorism that captures the work not only of the New York Committee, but of every effort to achieve equality for women in the courts and the legal profession. This dichotomy was apparent in July when a New York doctor blew up his family’s elegant townhouse rather than share…
Enfranchising the Classroom
By Bernadette Meyler • February 02, 2007 •Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
“Why speak more than absolutely necessary in class?,” a law student might wonder with some justification. First-year exams are blind graded, and ill-phrased comments could result in embarrassment in class, or, worse, expose a student to subsequent derision among his or her peers. Women appear to take the potentially negative consequences of volunteering in class more seriously than men though. Several prominent studies have demonstrated that women speak less in law school classes, and word of mouth indicates that that tendency continues at least at some institutions. But why should this matter? The most important reason, I would contend, is…
On “Balance”
By Jill Filipovic • February 02, 2007 •Balancing Private and Professional Life
[The following is an email sent out over an NYU Law listserve. It references an event sponsored by a religious organization at NYU, which featured a white, male, Mormon attorney with five children and a stay-at-home wife speaking about balancing work and family.] Rebecca writes, "Nor does it address the fact that, whether you intend to or not, when you say that Mr. Belnap can't speak for women on the work-life balance issues, you implicitly depict the issue as mainly a woman's issue. Work-life is an issue neutral to gender and neutral to having children or 'family'. And while women…
Sexist Advertising in Legal Magazines
By Jill Filipovic • February 02, 2007 •Women and Law in the Media
[The following focuses on an advertisement in Massachussets Lawyers Weekly, which featured a naked woman, covered by a man's suit coat, pulling a professionally-dressed man toward her by his tie, with the words, "A custom tailored suit is a natural aphrodisiac." Several female attorneys wrote in to complain, and a handful of "feminist" defenses of the ad followed. This is a response to some of those arguments.] If this ad is somehow represents the idea that women can be sexual, then that idea isn't really new at all, is it? Women's bodies have been used in advertising to sell goods…
What’s Wrong With The Times
By Beth Bernstein • February 02, 2007 •Women and Law in the Media
In the fall of 2005, The New York Times published an article discussing a relatively recent- and somewhat disturbing- trend among young women at elite colleges in the U.S. The article revealed that more and more female students at top undergraduate institutions are deciding (as early as freshman year) that they will opt for stay-at-home-motherhood over a career. The students interviewed shared the notion that it would be impossible to be a successful career woman and a successful mother simultaneously. As a senior in college at the time, set to attend law school the following fall, I was shocked by…
Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
By Callie M. Vivion-Matthews • February 02, 2007 •Curriculum and Classroom Dynamics
The following is the text of the graduation speech given by Callie M. Vivion-Matthews in December of 2006 at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. Her speech can be watched at http://smith4.net/Callie_0002.wmv Introduction Many of my fellow graduates told me that they voted for me to speak today because they think I am funny, and in fact, have demanded that I be so today. No pressure, right?! They want to laugh – laugh away all the anxiety and stress and craziness that has consumed so much of these last three and half years as a law students. They want me,…
My Mommy Wants to be a Lawyer
By Mary Nienaber-Foster • February 01, 2007 •Balancing Private and Professional Life
By Mary Nienaber-Foster, a 1L at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio Everyone thought I finally lost it. The kids or my husband's job had driven me to the brink of insanity and I had officially gone bonkers. I stood up in the spring of 2006 and announced to the world that I was going back to school. Law School. Fulltime. Granted, thousands of people around the country were announcing the same thing, but somehow, my little cluster of friends and family thought this was an earth-shattering announcement. After all, I wasn't a fresh-faced 22-year old. I was a mother. Of…