The Practice and Ally McBeal: A New Image for Women Lawyers on Television?

I. Introduction Women now account for about one half of the new lawyers in the United States (Southworth 284). This is an extraordinary accomplishment considering it was not that long ago that the Supreme Court held women had no legal right to become attorneys. In an 1872 decision, Bradwell v. Illinois, the Court decided states were constitutionally free to bar women from the legal profession.1 In a concurring opinion joined by Justices Field and Swayne, Justice Bradley stated "[t]he natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life.... The paramount destiny and mission of woman [sic] are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator. And the rules of civil society must be adapted to the general constitution of things."2 Not only were women discouraged from becoming attorneys by this Supreme Court ruling, it was not until 1970 that the Association of American Law Schools prohibited sex discrimination in the admissions policies of its member schools (Kelly and Hermann-Currie 35). Therefore, the enormous increase in the number of women in the profession is a relatively new phenomenon. The changes have occurred in less than thirty years. Despite the huge increase in the number of women lawyers in the past three decades, there is still a great disparity between the opportunities for, and experiences of, male and female attorneys in the United States.3 It has been well documented that women lawyers earn less money and have less prestigious positions than their male counterparts.4 While various theories have been put forth to explain these differences, it seems that "the white male continues to maintain power at the top of the heap, legal and otherwise."5 Many legal scholars blame popular culture and the media for fostering these inequities (Shapiro 956). After all, "[t]elevision's ability to shape our view of the world in general, and the legal system in particular, makes it a powerful cultural force" (Jarvis and Joseph vii). It has been argued that "the visual image plays a central role...in maintaining the status quo," and that white males, "as keepers of the visual image" are responsible for "the perpetuation of traditional power configurations" (Shapiro 956). Whether or not the white male is, in fact, to blame for this will be left to another day. This essay will focus, instead, on the visual images of female attorneys. Specifically, it will focus on the image of women lawyers on television; and, more specifically, the women lawyers on two new television shows: The Practice and Ally McBeal. The Practice was introduced in March of 1997 and Ally McBeal in September of the same year. II. Women Lawyers and Television Television is probably the most influential of all the mass media. "[It] has become the American people's most important source of ideas, apart from interpersonal contact" (Stark 281). "Americans do more television watching than any other activity except sleeping" (Glass 405). It is "both a mirror and a lamp, reflecting public opinion and leading it as well" (Stark 256). Unfortunately, women attorneys on television have traditionally not fared very well. They are portrayed "as incapable, either in their professional or personal spheres" (Corcos 221). As noted, their influence in the profession is not keeping pace with their numbers. This is possibly both a cause, and a result, of the way they have been portrayed in the media. If "television's power lies in its ability both to reinforce and shape public opinion" (Corcos 221), the message it sends about women lawyers becomes particularly important. Christine Alice Corcos has done an extensive review of the television shows which feature women lawyers, and her results are discouraging. She described the program Civil Wars as a "test case" (Corcos 219). It began with Mariel Hemingway as a powerful woman professional, who "broke nearly every accepted rule about the portrayal of women lawyers on television" (Corcos 221 ). …