An Open Letter to the Editor of the ABA Journal in response to the article, Are women lawyers…
By: Michelle Browning Coughlin
Tags: Legal, Gender Equality, Motherhood Penalty, Lawyers, Moms

An Open Letter to the Editor of the ABA Journal in response to the article, Are women lawyers paying enough attention to upward mobility?

When reading Susan Smith Blakely’s recent article, Are women lawyers paying enough attention to upward mobility?, we could not help but think we had inadvertently picked up an ABA Journal from a few decades ago. The advice in the Journal made us reflect on the call-to-action of ABA Immediate Past President Judy Perry Martinez:

“Ladders down.”

When President Perry Martinez says “Ladders down,” she is challenging all women - and men! - in the profession to not pull their career ladders up behind them as they climb, but rather to ensure that women and other underrepresented lawyers will be able to successfully ascend behind them.

Sadly, some lawyers unconsciously layer the rungs of their ladders with blame, shame, and condescension, only serving to trip up those people trying to rise up the ranks. Smith Blakely’s article is an example of this harmful approach, advancing a thesis that women lawyers, particularly mom-lawyers, would be more successful if only they’d try harder.

MothersEsquire, an organization dedicated to dismantling motherhood penalty in the legal profession, found Smith Blakely’s decision to single out lawyers who are moms demeaning and disappointing. She finger-wagged that we mom-lawyers are “stretched and overscheduled,” “exhausted,” “living only in the moment,” and are our “own worst enemies,” with our “perfectionism keeping us from advancement.” These accusations are not only condescending, generalizing, and inaccurate, they disregard virtually all the data about what actually keeps women lawyers from achieving parity in our profession. In fact, the ABA’s own Practice Forward survey and Walking Out the Door report, among other research studies, demonstrably refute the author’s claims.

Is there a motherhood penalty in many legal workplaces, like big law firms? Absolutely. Our goal then as women – our metaphorical ladder for women coming up behind us – should be to change the systems that hold women, including mothers, in an inequitable status in our profession, not blame moms for having to operate in that system.

Instead of blaming moms for being busy, how about addressing systems of unpaid labor in law firms and in communities that place women at a continual time disadvantage?

Instead of blaming women for “perfectionism,” how about we address the “Prove it Again” bias wherein women’s success is continually viewed as luck, rather than talent? How about we question whether “perfectionism” is viewed not as a flaw to be fixed, but as “persistence” or “excellence” when that label is applied to men?

Instead of calling women “their own worst enemies,” how about we try to stop being women’s worst enemies? Let’s stop telling women lawyers that it’s not only their responsibility to climb the brick wall of inequity that our profession has erected in front of them, but that the brick wall is their fault in the first place.

How about instead of kicking women we trying kicking some bricks out of that wall?

Lawyer-moms are not carelessly “living in the moment” – we are banding together by the thousands in on-line and in-person communities and associations; sharing networks, support, and referrals; and advocating together for other women and against systemic gender biases, while also being amazing moms, lawyers, and community members. We are a large and increasingly loud constituency, representing a significant portion of the legal workforce. Bar associations, like the ABA and its publications, should be advocates for progress and inclusion, not stalwart defenders of a status quo that serves no positive purpose for our profession or our clients.

If this is what Smith Blakely’s “ladder” looks like, we don’t need her to leave it down after all.

Signed,

Michelle Browning Coughlin, MothersEsquire Founder

Belinda Macauley, MothersEsquire Member