Blog 39

Throughout the course of this past semester we have studied quite a bit in regards to the trials, tribulations, and difficulties that woman have had to overcome while breaking into the workforce over the past 20 to 50 years. Now granted over this time period women were very instrumental in many different career fields, however, breaking into the justice field has been a lot more difficult for them. We have see many case studies of women wanting to become involved however, not doing so as they feel it was too tough of a career for them. There are also many other opinions that have been given as well for them not getting involved with this career field. Now when going through the recent course material I can recall many different items of why the number of women that are involved in our justice system seems to be so low; first off women becoming lawyers is something that takes a very special women to do. You must have thick skin, and decent head on your shoulders and willing to take quite a bit of criticism it seems from male colleagues. Even though there are laws out there on the books that will protect us from job discrimination based on gender and harassment, it’s a lot more difficult for a women to actually report a colleague that this is occurring to them. We have heard many stories throughout the course of the semester regarding the difficulties that women have had to deal with while working in the justice field. With the recent publication by Holly English she has really been able to shed some light of the difficulties that women who become lawyers may have. Between the balancing of the long hours due to being a lawyer, to the time of trying to actually balance a home life and kids. We have to make sure that women are able to handle all things at hand. Her proposal to given women and men the equal right and change while practicing law is what would be best. Even though women may take on more responsibility in the home, they still are plenty capable of having a rewarding career as an attorney.
Word Count (367)

Blog 38

With everything that our country deals with there are always though how help break things out of the normal cycle that they are in. It seems that our country gets into a certain path that allows for us to get very comfortable within that certain area, which in turn becomes primary and then to break out of the cycle becomes a huge event that can take a numerous about of years to overcome. A personal story that comes to my mind is with the state of Arizona. The internal justice commission that governs most of the states internal audits was always ran by men. I am fortunate enough to say that my grandmother was the first woman to ever run that department prior to her retirement in 1998. Being able to say that someone within my family was able to break barriers like that is nothing short of amazing! Another very remarkable woman in my opinion is the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She was the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court Justice and has a lot of ground breaking under her belt as well. I think something that is really cool as well is for the residents of Arizona. Prior to her election into the Supreme Court she was one to sit on the bench here in Arizona. That’s very special recognition for our state as well. Other women that has made quite a bit of ground for our court system is Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg. She is the second women to sit on the bench following the election of Sandra Day O’Connor. She herself has made quite a bit of headway as well within our justice system as well. A majority of her career was centered on the advocacy of equal citizenship status for both men and women. She is a strong believer in equal rights, and used that philosophy quite a bit when making rulings on her cases. Both of these women I feel are individuals that have helped pave the way for future women to enter into the justice system. Like I said earlier, in everything that occurs when something is outside the norm it takes someone to break that norm to start a change, these two women in my opinion have done just that.

Word Count (380)

Blog 37

The American Bar Association released a report regarding the difficulties women are having with becoming fully integrated within our justice system. There was documentation within this large publication that goes into great detail regarding the changes that are occurring within the profession, however, large concerns given the fact that some sort of other action needs to be taken instead of just waiting for time to try and take over this sort of thing. In 1988 the American Bar Association released its landmark report detailing the difficulties that women are having within the justice profession. They at that time were trying to determine what exactly needed to occur to have this profession become more equal in regards to the gender that was sitting in these positions. They wanted to find out mainly what the issue was. When reviewing what one of the main reasons that this sort of thing was occurring it was mainly contributed to the attitudes that were given by already practicing male attorneys. The older more tenured attorneys had this hostile attitude towards women coming into practice law. They were mixed opinions as to why, however, what it really comes down to was the fact that many male attorneys felt they were not strong enough to engage in this sort of employment position. Now given this information the report still showed in increase in women obtaining and achieving jobs in this profession. Statistical analysis shows that from 1988 to 2003 the increase in women going to law school had gone from 22% up to 47% on average. Another interesting fact were women who became general counsel for fourteen 500 companies went from 5.9 to 23.1% either way both of those facts are outstanding improvements to a getting to a more gender equal position. Holly English as well touched on many of these points. The fact that women deal with a lot of discrimination within these sorts of positions really give them a bad taste in their mouth not keeping them around very long in the private practice side of things as a lot more women tend to sit on general counsel boards for large companies.

Word count (359)

Blog 36

As we have gone through many changes in our country over the past few years. One thing is definitely prevalent of occurring. We prior to this past election have never seen a women run in some sort of faction of the position highest in politics in our Country. Last year’s election during the democratic primaries you had Hilary Clinton running for the seat of president against Barak Obama. This was quite a race either way as you essentially had an African American and a Women running for seat that was normally battled for between two white men. Now on the other hand you also had a female (Sarah Palin) running with John McCain as the vice president nominee. Either way both of these were very interesting cases as there had never been any sort of women running for these elected positions to begin with. Now that we have had two women run for the highest position in our political system what is so different? You would think by this occurring it opens up things to allow for women to run at any stage or work at any level in our country correct? Now granted – when looking at other extremely high positions in Corporate America you have many that do not make it all the way to the top. The analogy used for this sort of situation is called the “glass ceiling.” Many women feel that they are only able to make it to a certain level and then that they cannot go any further. Why is that? Well many factors come into play. One of the biggest reasons that I hear about is that women feel the need to still be evolved with their family a little bit more. When hitting those very high level executive positions you usually are taken away from your family quite a bit. However, I remember doing a research paper a few years back about women in Corporate America who in turn they usually do not hold high level positions until their children are grown up and out of the home. This in my opinion makes sense as they would have nothing to do after their children are grown and out of the home as women are by nature nurtures.
Word Count (375)

Blog 35

Recently a new set of recommendations were sent out by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding “best practices” that companies should follow when it comes to care taking. In the article Care taking is described as someone who has the responsibility of take care of either a child or an aging parent/grandparent. In the article they focus on the constraints that occur for individuals that need to take care of another person. With trying to balance work along with family it can become quite difficult. Now that the overall working population consists of 46% of women something like this needed to be published for individuals and businesses to refer to. When thinking about this sort of thing, it definitely needs to be considered what kinds of individuals are affected. As we move more and more down the road of our current recession, the article points out a great point in my opinion. Women more and more are becoming breadwinners of the home. The reason for this is during the current recession a lot of the positions that have been effected were investment bankers and construction workers; which as we know both positions are mainly fulfilled by male employers. This sort of flexibility has been recommended for quite some time by the different government agencies. I know that more and more of them are recommending flex locations allowing people to work from home or out of remote offices that may be closer to home. I can say that because of these recommendations it has helped my family out quite a bit. Prior to last May, my other had to care for my grandma as she had the highest stage of ALS possible. With this disease she dealt with taking her too many doctor appointments, along with having to care for her on many different levels. Because of this flexibility she was able to move her schedule around and help accommodate the needs of her mother. I am definitely a big fan of the program mainly because of that.

Word count (337)

Blog 34

During this past election our country overcame history in a lot more ways than one. First off, we had an African American run for president which in the end he ended up winning. However, we also had another large stepping stone as well we had two women involved in the running for some of the highest seats in offices as well. We had Hilary Clinton who was running for the democratic seat in the presidential election, who in turn ended up losing in the primaries to our now current president Barack Obama. As well as we had Sara Palin who ran with Senator John McCain as his vice presidential candidate. These two women have helped to break quite a bit of barriers that have been put in place for a quite a while in the political system. For the longest time to get into politics, the standard was that it was always a male. Now that we are becoming more and more equal between private and elected positions we are starting to see women break into these career fields that have always been so customarily locked by the male population. Now another item that was discussed in the course material was the advancement of women in the justice system. We are seeing more women continue to populate these fields as well. I remember reading an article that was discussing the departure of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. When she was getting ready to leave the bench, the discussion of who was going to take her position started to take place. During that time period a national poll was ran, who intern 80% of them thought another woman should take her place. Well in the mist of the article, people were saying that they felt more women should be on the Supreme Court. I personally believe we should be taking individuals that are most qualified for these positions, and not base them off of their gender.
Word Count (326)

Blog 33

The advancement of woman in our justice system is nothing short of amazing. It was not very long ago that anything related to the justice field was nothing but men. They would be the ones that were sitting on the judge’s bench. They were the ones you would contact when you needed legal advice. They were the ones you spoke with when you needed an attorney. The justice system was just run by men. Fast forward to today and you still deal with many men in our justice system it still quite a bit of a ratio of men to women, however, the presence of women in the justice system is becoming more and more prevalent. As our country moves continuously moves forward to a more equal bipartisan type view on employment and gender women will continue to make an impact and overall movement into the justice field for a career. Now to this day even though they are moving and making more of an approach into the career they still have quite a few boundaries that they have to deal with. One of the biggest deals that they have the face is those attorneys who still think they are not capable of doing the job of an attorney. There are many old school attorneys out there that think just because they are a female they are not cut out for this sort of work. I remember reading about an attorney who was fired multiple times from many different practices. The reason she was fired was because she was not forceful enough when dealing with cases. She knew her job very well, she could manage and handle things very well but when it came down to it she was not able to stand up to her clients at times even when deciding it was in the best interest of them, and they were wanting to go the other way. Either way, they have come a long way but still have a lot of challenges ahead of them in this field of work.

Word count (343)

Blog 32

We all know that the decision to become a parent is something that takes a lot of planning, decision making, and overall preparedness. I am pretty sure that everyone at some point or another in their life wants to be a parent to a child. Knowing that you have brought a child into this world is something that gives one such gratification, and a lot of enjoyment as you gets to watch them grow, learn and mature into a young man or woman. Now back in the day, it was a lot easier to plan for children. The reason behind that was usually the father was the one to go out to work, make the money for the family and would bring these goods back to the home. While on the other hand the women “mother” would be the one that would stay home with the children, help them with homework, learning, overall child development, etc. Now fast forward to today. Things are definitely a lot different. It’s now not uncommon to see both parties actually out there working and bringing a paycheck home due to the cost of living that we all deal with. Now when thinking of becoming a lawyer a lot of dedication comes along with that; you have to be quite committed as a business partner/owner of the practice. With that, lawyers in the family would more then likely be the breadwinner of the family. So in turn males usually do not have the wives working when they are a lawyer as they can bring home enough money to support the family. While on the other hand women who are lawyers a lot of times have to give a little bit more towards the family so many times find themselves getting behind in work, and cannot give as much time to the practice as they still need to help play a vital role in the raising of their family. That’s why usually women lawyers do not become as high profile as family plays a lot more important of a role to them then it usually does to the male side of the house.

Word count (357)

Blog 31

Working in the legal profession is usually a very rewarding career however, at times you can be very much what I like to call married to your job. The amount of time, dedication, hours, and commitment that are needed to the career is something that anything thinking about getting involved with really needs to consider. We all know that when working in the legal field the pay benefit can be somewhat very lucrative depending on the position that you get into. Yet, a lot of times people do not understand the commitment of time and the amount of work that is also associated with the position. Either way the benefits are amazing. Now when thinking about getting into the legal profession many times individuals enter knowing about these sort of things – the long hours, the stress of working the large case, the continuous phone calls, being pretty much always on call, etc. However, they choose to still take the job. Along with when getting into the legal profession, I have heard that many people enter into it as a single individual the amount of time that it takes prior to getting yourself setup is something that everyone must do. Law school is not the only intense three years of your life, also the different types of people that you deal with along with the different types of studying that is needed. Either way the outcome is definitely a rewarding one. Some of the other items that I remember hearing about is that you usually when entering into the legal field have to make sure that you have individuals around you that are understanding of the schedule that goes along with this sort of position, getting into a relationship or trying to start a family with someone that does not have the general understanding of the schedule, long hours, or stressful stints could have a short relationship ahead of them.

Word count (319)

Blog 30

After reviewing the article from the NPR community website it was very interesting to understand why the statistics are so low of their being minority women that work or have partial ownership of these law firms that we usually frequent on a regular. The impression that I have always had was that lawyers were usually law abiding citizens, you never think that they would be the ones that are discriminative against others, judge others by their skin color or their nationality that is other than from what we have in the united states. It seems that in our law firms, which we all know usually consist of white males are being so judgmental, harmful, and just plain disrespectful. However, they are doing this very thing to women who are of different nationality and involved with our justice system. Either way it’s something that is very sad to see and must stop. In the article that was presented to us there was a story of a women lawyer who was Korean, one of her male colleges called her into his office as he was dealing with a Korean client the lawyer looked at her and started talking gibberish which in turn really was trying to be him speaking Chinese or Korean. After he confronted him in front of the client by introducing herself to the client in English she went back to her office. While at her desk, on their internal messaging system, something close to an instant message on her computer popped up with a whole bunch of gibberish of numbers and letters. This was supposed to be the lawyer trying to talk Chinese again to her. This in my opinion is just plain disrespectful. However, it goes along with the book. Holly English touches on the same sort of scenarios regarding the constraints those women lawyers deal with in the practice. Here these lawyers are supposed to be their colleges and it’s almost like they are their enemies.

Word count (329)

Blog 29

After reviewing the article from the NPR community website it was very interesting to understand why the statistics are so low of their being minority women that work or have partial ownership of these law firms that we usually frequent on a regular. The impression that I have always had was that lawyers were usually law abiding citizens, you never think that they would be the ones that are discriminative against others, judge others by their skin color or their nationality that is other than from what we have in the united states. It seems that in our law firms, which we all know usually consist of white males are being so judgmental, harmful, and just plain disrespectful. However, they are doing this very thing to women who are of different nationality and involved with our justice system. Either way it’s something that is very sad to see and must stop. In the article that was presented to us there was a story of a women lawyer who was Korean, one of her male colleges called her into his office as he was dealing with a Korean client the lawyer looked at her and started talking gibberish which in turn really was trying to be him speaking Chinese or Korean. After he confronted him in front of the client by introducing herself to the client in English she went back to her office. While at her desk, on their internal messaging system, something close to an instant message on her computer popped up with a whole bunch of gibberish of numbers and letters. This was supposed to be the lawyer trying to talk Chinese again to her. This in my opinion is just plain disrespectful. However, it goes along with the book. Holly English touches on the same sort of scenarios regarding the constraints those women lawyers deal with in the practice. Here these lawyers are supposed to be their colleges and it’s almost like they are their enemies.

Word count (329)

Blog 28

After reading the article about the potential nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court it truly does not surprise me with the issues that have been pointed out in the article. She seems like a very nice lady when she is outside of the court however; there are too many things that concern republican citizens such as me. Some of the ways that she rules in her court decisions a lot of times appear to be very biased. She is someone that is very into with individuals on the ‘shorter’ end of the stick in my opinion. She likes to help the underdog win. Now one thing that definitely frustrates me when new media get their grimy little hands on information is the way that they will twist, turn, and spit things out about certain subjects or individuals What I mean by this is the article gave a lot of false accusations, they miss construed a lot of information that was listed in the article and really turned it against Ms. Sotomayor. When a lot of individuals found out that she was nominated yes, the country really went into an uproar on one side, while on the other side it was the best thing that could happen since sliced bread. Mainly a lot of people really wanted this as she would have been the first Hispanic female to hold a chair on the highest level that our court had to offer the citizens of this country. One thing that they really focused on was her temperament. A lot of times people that would go through her court would try and challenge her a lot. The speculation around this was that she was someone who did not like her authority to be questioned. Now if you were one to do this sort of thing, you would definitely pay for it in one faction or another.

Word count (315)

Blog 27

As I come down to my final semester of my Justice Studies degree I feel that I have studied quite a bit about the different types of law in our constitution, however, with that research we have also reviewed quite a bit the different types of positions that are available to individuals that want to be involved with the law, and the many different factions that come along with it. One of the biggest reviews that I remember is the different types of lawyers that are out in our country these days. Some get into practicing law because they have a strong feeling about a certain subject. Some may get into law because they have the want to help under privileged individuals. Some get into law, because they want to make sure that people who commit crimes on our Countries soil are able to see the proper side of justice. Then there is probably the most noticeable, those individuals that get into being a lawyer because they want to make money, these would be the individuals that we like to call defense attorneys. Now when defense attorneys step foot into a courtroom it really comes down to being a no holds bard. They are willing to do anything needed to make sure that their client wins. Most of the time it really is to make sure their clients do not get charged with what the original charges are; with that, when you have defense attorneys going against a female lawyer a lot of time they may work at trying to use their male dominance against them to help establish a sort of intimidation so that they can win the case for their client. Either way it usually is very a cheap shot and very immature, but like me said earlier a defense attorney has two things on their priority list. One to win for their client, two to make a lot of money.

Word count (323)

Blog 26

As we all know it has been more recent than before to see women practicing law. 30-50 years ago the thought of a women becoming a lawyer was just something that you did not see. It wasn’t a matter of if they could or could not do it. It was more about the time period of modesty, and how families were brought up. During those times men would be the ones that went to work, made the money needed for the family, and then brought that home to the household. While on the other hand, women were the homemakers. The women that would get the kids up in the morning, breakfast for the family and then would see her husband off to work, and her kids off to school. Now that times have changed, mainly because this society is no longer a one salary job that in turn can support both sides of the family; it really does take two incomes in today’s society to support a family. With that many women have gone to school, and worked their way all the way to practicing law. Now since this is still relatively new, many older lawyers feel the need to look over the female lawyers in the practice. Many of the lawyers that have been around quite a bit still have mixed emotions about women practicing law as they tend to usually be a bit more modest and resistant. However, in this position at time you need to be able to step outside that comfortable zone from time to time to go to bat for your client and get the win that they hired you to do. Either way, many male lawyers have stated the need to make sure that they give the backing as sometimes women lawyers need to have that presented to them otherwise they feel they are being over looked.
Word count (313)

Blog 25

There is a saying that is used quite a bit in out country these days. The saying “if you need to get it done, and then sex sells.” Personally that is a very bold statement don’t you think? Why do we need to revert to something that is suppose to be a private act between two individuals to express the highest level of love and affection for one another? Personally, being someone who is very conservative I do not always agree with this sort of action when out in public. Now don’t get me wrong, I wreak a lot of benefits from individuals who decide to go ahead and advertise in this sort of faction. Personally it’s something that I really enjoy. Now shift gears here for a second and turn to the work place, truly is sex something that really needs to be sold while in the work place? Do we really need to revert to this sort of activity and behavior when we are with our coworkers in regards to trying to get something done? As sad as it sounds its something that does happen while out in the workforce. Now the unfortunate thing too is that it usually is a male conducting this sort of activity, and a female that it’s being conducted against. Now from time to time, women will report the violations to the appropriate areas however, more times than not they will not report it. I was reading a case study that had a women being harassed in the work place quite a bit. She took the harassment for years, until finally having a bad day at home prior to getting to the office. Well the actions that took place that day were definitely crossing the line, it was reported, and then the individual was fired. He took the company to court and ended up getting his job back as it was shown that she ‘provoked’ the activity. With that, they had to rehire the individual even though he was clearly at fault here.

Word Count (340)

Blog 24

While interviewing a friend of mine who just became a lawyer not too long ago in Washington I really wanted to speak to her about how she dresses, and why does she dress that way. I started off by asking her if she felt if the way that she dressed really had anything to do with the way she conducted herself with her position. She informed me that its one of the biggest things that she contributes her success too. When she dresses in a suite, not only does it make her feel good and confident about herself and the role that she is in, but it also gives off the professional look she said. It’s something that I do mainly for my clients though. I asked why that was; she informed me that it was because when they see you in a suite or dressed professionally its like we are really to beat the world. I thought that was very interesting in putting it in those terms. I asked if there were any differences between the ways she dressed at work compared to the way that she dressed at home. She told me very much so. When at home, she loves to be in pajamas, getting dressed up to the limit for work is a lot of fun, however, its tiring and gets old at times she told me. After asking when you go out of the house is it any different. This answer surprised me, she said no, it’s just not as much. I wanted to know that she meant by that. She told me that you never know when you will meet a potential client, so making sure that you are dressed for success at any point of the day is the key when you are out in public it definitely comes into play quite a bit.

Word count (310)

Blog 23

When it comes to our politician we see them as dressing up in the old fashion way. Until the last 20 years or so it was unheard of to see a woman in politics. However, now and more these days you will they usually are in many different factions of the politics, yet one thing remains the same they all are professionals. So when you are a professional, what would you wear? As a man, it would be expected that you are in a suite usually with a tie, but is not uncommon these days to see a male with a button down shirt and just a blazer on. Now when it comes to women, they tend to get a lot more scrutiny in the way that they dress. Prior to this past election you normally would see a woman that was running in some sort of political faction in a suite. They would always be dressed very conservative, to the point that you really had no attention paid to the way that they were dressed. Now, all of that seemed to have changed after this past election. There was a big stink made during the presidential election over the way that Sarah Palin was dressing. Then during the whole election time period it was breaking news that she spent $150,000.00 dollars on a new wardrobe. However, why doesn’t anyone care about this sort of thing when it actors or actresses doing this? Lastly, one that I found very interesting that also made news when was Mr. McCain’s daughter took a picture of herself while at home, which showed a little bit of cleavage. Who cares, she was at home in the privacy and comfort of her confinements. If she was out in public, as a public figure then I could see making a big deal out of this, however she was not.

Word Count (313)

Blog 22

After hearing that Judge Sonya Sotomayor was elected for the Supreme Court I personally did not care. However, after learning more about whom she was, the way she has ruled on pass cases and the direction that she usually goes towards in judging her cases I started to really have second thoughts about if this women truly was someone that was going to be any good for our Supreme court. It appears that I was not the only one that thought this way. There are many articles out there on the internet projecting the concerns people that with her becoming a judge for the highest level of court our country has to offer. When you are a judge on the Supreme Court it is your duty to make sure that you are providing a fair and unbiased decision when you are ruling a case that sits in front of you. Unfortunately you are not allowed to let your personal feelings and emotions take over when giving the overall deciding factor in the case. Otherwise if this was to happen you ultimately would not have anyone to judge the case base on the facts that have been presented, along with matching those facts against the law that our founding fathers and constants have put in place. I reviewed a few cases on the internet that Judge Sotomayor sat on the bench for, and I just say its very apparent that she sometimes lets her personal feelings contradict the law that is on the books, I read one case where in my opinion it was ruled correctly at the circuit level, however, after it touched her bench it was reversed stating that gender discrimination occurred, and for that an extremely large award was placed in favor of the plaintiff who filed the law suit to begin with.
Word Count (307)