ABA updates policy with a focus on renewing ERA effort.
Resolution 601 Adopted, August 5-6, 2024
Our Initiatives
The Commission serves as a catalyst for change to help women lawyers surmount the barriers they still confront through numerous informative and cutting-edge initiatives.
NEW Reports
"Excluded & Alone: Examining the Experiences of Native American Women in the Law and a Path Towards Equity"
The ABA Commission on Women in the Profession collaborated with the National Native American Bar Association on this new report.
Programs and Resources for Native American Women Attorneys
Legal Careers of Parents and Child Caregivers: Results and Best Practices from a National Study of the Legal Profession
It’s past time to flip the narrative. This essential and timely report reveals the prevalence and impact of parenting and child caregiving on legal professionals.
how and why the everyday work experiences of women lawyers with children differ from men with children.
Women of Color Initiatives
Guided Conversations: Highlighting Experiences of Intersectionality Webinar
Created to improve dialogue about race, ethnicity, and gender, the Guided Conversations Project aims to illuminate the intersectional experiences of women of color and promote allyship in the legal profession. In honor of this vision and Women’s History Month, the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, co-sponsored by the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, is hosting a day of conversation to convene highly accomplished women to share their experiences. This free virtual program will feature women lawyers of diverse demographic backgrounds and legal specialties in a 60-minute discussion moderated by former CWP Chair Michele Coleman Mayes followed by a 30-minute Q&A portion.
Makalika Naholowa'a Interviews Native American Women “Firsts”
Native American Heritage Month program featuring U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and a panel of other Native American Women “Firsts," followed by a presentation on the new qualitative study on the experiences of Native American attorneys presented by Study Co-Chairs, Jin Hwang, member, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, and Linda Benally, Past President of the National Native American Bar Association.
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This Talk Isn't Cheap - A Guided Conversation
"Women of Color and White Women Attorneys Find Common Ground" provides a guide to improving conversations about gender, race, and ethnicity, also referred to as intersectionality, so that all women can work together in combating the barriers to advancement in the legal profession. This report explores the reasons why women of color have feelings of mistrust toward their white female colleagues while also addressing the challenges white women experience in attempting to understand the needs of their minority female colleagues.
Read the Report
Guided Conversations Project
The Guided Conversations Project addresses the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender in the legal profession. Through structured dialogue women of color and white women can bridge gaps in understanding and build allyship to promote racial equity.
Women of Color Research
To fully examine advancement and retention issues among women attorneys of color, the Commission has engaged in this groundbreaking research initiative on diversity dynamics in the legal profession. This initiative has resulted in two reports dealing with women in law firms, and a publication that addresses women attorneys of color in corporate settings.
Grit and Growth Mindset Project
Gritty Teams Webinar: Leveraging Grit and Growth Mindset to Drive Team Success
This webinar will present the new Commission on Women in the Profession Grit research, Leveraging Grit and Growth Mindset to Drive Team Success, which focuses on understanding the impact of a grit and growth mindset on overall team performance, engagement, morale, and firm/organizational culture and identify how best to build, nurture, and sustain gritty, growth mindset-oriented teams.
Gritty Teams: The Report
Leveraging Grit and Growth Mindset to Drive Team Success - This new Commission on Women report builds upon the original Grit research and focuses on steps that team leaders and team members can take to increase a gritty, growth mindset. Research has shown that team experiences greatly influence job satisfaction and, adopting gritty and growth mindset-oriented behaviors on teams can reduce the number of negative experiences and increase team experiences. Given the challenges posed by the Great Resignation, where women lawyers left jobs in droves, we are confident that this report will prove to be quite educational and valuable.
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Grit and Growth Mindset Project
The Grit and Growth Mindset Project will educate women lawyers about the science behind grit and growth mindset - two important traits that many successful women lawyers have in common. By providing the tools to assess and learn these traits, the Grit Project will enhance the effectiveness as well as the retention and promotion of women lawyers. In addition, it will engage law schools and law firms with practical ways to incorporate these concepts into their performance evaluations and professional development programs.
More Commission Projects
Bias Interrupters
The groundbreaking report "You Can't Change What You Can't See" was published in collaboration with the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. The report reveals the various biases that women lawyers of color and white women lawyers experience in the profession, providing recommendations to legal employers for removing institutionalized and systemic barriers to women lawyers' success.
Men in the Mix
Men in the Mix seeks to gain insight and perspective on why some men hesitate or decide not to join women's initiatives, then uncover and create tools and best practices to encourage mutual conversation on advancing women in the legal profession.
Zero Tolerance
Thirty percent or more lawyers have experienced sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace, and at law firms that number is likely higher. This manual and toolkit provide resources about the effects of sex-based harassment on associates and partners when they're attacked, sexualized, and in other ways victimized on the job.
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Celebrating Women's Leadership Webinar
We invite you to join ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross and Commission on Women in the Profession 2023 Chair Hon. Maureen Mulligan as they lead a robust roundtable discussion about the history of the advancement of women in the legal profession as well as the lessons learned by this esteemed group as they carved their paths to the top of the profession.
In Their Own Words - Initiative on Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law
A report from the Long-Term Careers for Women in Law initiative looks at the factors that influence the decisions by experienced women lawyers to remain in practice, move to a different job within the law (including in-house counsel), or step out of the profession altogether after 15 or more years of practice. What changes can be made to encourage women to stay in law practice?
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Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law
Using life cycle models from the fields of sociology, social psychology and economics, the focus of this initiative is on the many benefits of women remaining in the profession. It highlights the career paths of senior women lawyers who continue to practice, exercise power, and inspire future generations of women lawyers.
In Their Own Words, Left Out and Left Behind & Walking Out the Door
The Financial Future is Female: Women Lawyers & Wealth Creation
This four-webinar series is intended to educate women lawyers on wealth creation and management and empower them with their money. Recordings of the webinars, PowerPoint slides, and additional resources will be available on this page.
ABA Task Force on Gender Equity
The ABA Task Force on Gender Equity, formed in 2012 and now part of the Commission, implemented a series of projects to promote gender equity, particularly with regards to compensation of law firm partners.
