Using life cycle models from the fields of sociology, social psychology and economics, the focus of this iniative 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.
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.
The Grit 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.
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.
This project seeks to address hurdles, psychological and otherwise, that men may face whether they're considering involvement in a women’s affinity group or just having a conversation about the disparities faced by their women colleagues. Content for a new toolkit will be developed through four programs held across the country.
In 2010, in partnership with the Commission and in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards, Ms. JD awarded fellowships to 20 rising third-year law students who are being mentored for one year by women chosen from among Brent honorees. The partnership has continued each year.
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.
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.
