Decline in DEI - including at law firms

Giving expression to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”), Axios has an article about a report describing the decline in DEI efforts across Corporate America—including in law firms—as a result of the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling. Sadly (but not surprisingly), the report finds that, though companies and law firms were making progress towards DEI efforts at the beginning of 2023, that progress reversed itself in the second half of the year.

Enough with Lean In!

Fast Company reports that ten years after the publication of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, and years after the resulting backlash from that book—women are still being asked to fix themselves in order to achieve gender equality. This is a problem because, as the article explains: “When we ask women to lean in, we effectively blame them for inequitable conditions they can’t control.” There are several other good examples of the “blame women” approach in the article. It concludes by recommending that, before you ask someone to “lean in,” you ask yourself three questions:

1. Would I say the same thing to this person if they were of another gender or race? (Ideally: Yes.)

2. Am I deflecting blame for a larger problem by asking someone to do a certain task? (Ideally: No.)

3. Am I asking someone to change who they are to meet my requests? (Ideally: No.)

For My Law Professor Friends

Forbes reports that that men dominate the Q&A sessions at academic conferences. This matters because such comments can generate interest in additional research and study. In academic settings—as in all others—silence doesn’t help us. If we don’t speak up, the world won’t change. (Incidentally, the Girl Power issue to which I just linked is, according to Beehiiv, my most popular issue. And yet, despite the fact that its subject matter was devoted to using our voices, it was shared the least. Go figure that one!)

The Motherhood Penalty

Women across professions spoke to Fortune [paywall] about the motherhood penalty, where working moms are perceived as less ambitious and overlooked for opportunities in the workplace. The discussions included “hazing” of younger women with children by senior women, as we discussed in the last issue of Comes Now.

RTO = Men First

Enterpreneur magazine reports that company policies requiring employees to return to the office will benefit men at the expense of women, widening the gender pay gap. This happens, of course, because women have more caregiving responsibilities—and those responsibilities require flexible work arrangements.

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