To succeed, female lawyers have to endure overload
A lawyer is a profession for strong-willed, courageous, enterprising and purposeful people, requiring a certain amount of courage. And courage, from the point of view of the etymology of the word, is not the most feminine quality. Unfortunately, in Russia there is generally an unspoken opinion that women’s destiny is, first of all, family and children, and work is temporary entertainment. And that’s not the only stereotype I’ve come across in my career.
Stay at home, raise children
When I was just starting my career, I often heard from colleagues and friends that it is very difficult for a woman to be a lawyer. Some frankly said: “Why do you need this? You are a girl, first of all you need to take care of your family. Yes, indeed, a lawyer’s schedule can be overloaded. And there is nothing wrong with that, if in return you get pleasure from work that expands your opportunities and develops your abilities.
Speaking about myself, now I combine work in the college, training young lawyers, participation in television programs and social activities. Employment is enormous. Despite this, I manage to strictly maintain a balance between work and family. How? First of all, it is organization: a pre-planned schedule does not allow you to take a step aside. Of course, I exaggerate a little, but in general I try to stick to a tight schedule. Being a good lawyer, I remain a good mother for an already quite adult daughter – a student, I always find time to meet friends, go to the theater, cinema. It seems to me that love for work and loved ones is very well combined if you are organized and plan your working day, life and leisure in advance.
Weaklings have no place here
Many do not trust women in the legal profession. This is especially true for young girls who are only at the beginning of their careers. While still in my second year, I got a job at the legal advice office No. 6 of the Moscow State Civil Academy on Kuznetsky Most – the very one from which such famous masters as Heinrich Padva, Alexander Gofshtein, Pavel Astakhov and others came out. In the process of work, I had to convince my colleagues step by step that I am a true professional and can be trusted.
In addition to knowledge, skills and experience, it was patience and the ability to ignore distrust and personal grievances that allowed me to grow to the current heights in my career. But with such an attitude, sometimes I had to work with doubled, or even tripled energy. Indeed, at the beginning of a career, it is very important to demonstrate your competence, in practice to prove that you have willpower, focus on results, endurance, logic and acumen. In addition, all advocacy is associated with a colossal emotional burden. Therefore, a woman lawyer is forced to achieve success, withstanding overload.
Emotional and rational
It is believed that a woman is guided more by emotions than by logic. It so happened that our society considers men to be thinking beings, but this is not given to women, they are characterized by a certain mythical “female logic”. But, fortunately, this stereotype is very rarely confirmed. But in the work of a lawyer, you need to manage your emotions very rationally. This applies to both working with a client and working with a subordinate. Firstly, you won’t be enough for everyone, and secondly, you need to build relationships so that you are heard as a professional, and not as an emotional lady who screams at everyone, swears, or cries, empathizing with the client. After all, when you come to the doctor to treat a sore throat, I don’t think that empathy and the doctor’s tears are more important for you than the prescribed treatment.
It’s the same in my profession. Nevertheless, I believe that the lawyer who does not experience excitement before the trial is bad. At the same time, it does not matter at all whether this is the first thing in your life or the thousand and first. Each new accepted case is a small life that you live from the moment of his birth until the end of litigation. Victory in business is an incomparable feeling of the need for your business. This is the drive, what you work as a lawyer for.
Clients prefer men
As a rule, clients prefer male lawyers. Until they work with a woman. And some would even like to see a woman as their lawyer, believing that they, having innate intuition, feel the situation in court more subtly. Seriously, the professionalism of a lawyer does not depend on gender. There have been cases where clients wanted to work with men, and after working with women, admitted that the gender of the lawyer does not matter if the work is done well and on time.
I had to handle a lot of cases related to determining the place of residence of children. There is a long established practice that children should live with their mothers. And only in extreme cases with dads, if mom is, for example, an asocial element. So, I decided for myself that I would handle the cases of fathers – men who are so afraid to seek help from a woman lawyer. And do not believe it, after a certain time, fame came to me as a lawyer representing the interests of fathers in courts.
Despite these stereotypes, I even believe that it is easier for a woman to achieve success in the legal profession than for a man. Women are naturally more patient, diplomatic and emotionally flexible. They are able to notice more details, see and remember the shades of human reactions better, and more easily establish emotional contact. In general, if we talk about the profession, then lawyers cannot be divided into women and men, but are divided only by specialization.
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The legal profession has been known to be a male-dominated field. As of 2016, only 25% of lawyers were female. This is due to the low number of female law students and the lack of female-friendly programs.
There are four stereotypes that are commonly associated with women in the legal field:
1) Women lack confidence and make less money than men; 2) Women are not as good at arguing cases in court; 3) Women have a harder time getting promoted; and 4) Women want to work in a different type of career after they graduate from law school.
These stereotypes are not true for all women, but they do exist for some women. This article explores these stereotypes and provides facts about current female lawyers who disprove these myths.