Unit D - Blog 32

If you are a parent in law, you are looked at differently; women more so than men. The natural and apparent assumption, not only in law, but in every field is that a child is going to come first to a mother. For a father, this is not the same. Traditionally mothers have been the caretakers while fathers are the breadwinners. Our society structure allowed for men to be at work long hours and to worry about paying the bills and putting food on the table. Mothers obviously were on the other side of that and it was their responsibility to stay at home and raise children. It is now becoming a norm that mothers work, but they are still expected to raise the children. In the law field it is assumed that if a woman has a child there is a good chance she will have to leave work and won’t be able to put 100% into a case. For male lawyers that have children, it is assumed his wife will take care of those issues rather if she works or not. These assumptions make it very difficult for mothers to have respect from their peers.

On the other side of the fence there is the mother that values her job and really doesn’t let her children affect her performance. This type of woman lawyer will still be “committed” and work the long hours, but will then receive criticism on being a good mother. It is a double edged sword. I found it interesting that many mothers were secretive about having children in order to keep the respect from their peers. One mother even hid her pregnancy for eight months, and when she announced her pregnancy she got a wow type reaction that she didn’t let it affect her. Outside of the office the mothers that work long hours and that are high-powered have to then be concerned with perceptions from other mothers that think they aren’t raising their kids properly or giving them enough attention. I couldn’t believe that one mother wouldn’t tell other parents outside of work that she was a lawyer because they would judge her parenting.