Welcome, new subscribers! What I’m Reading & Thinking is the Thursday issue of Comes Now distributed only to Beehiiv subscribers. In this issue I talk about articles or books I’ve read that may be of interest to women lawyers. Some weeks I skip it when there’s not enough material, but, since I haven’t had an issue in a few weeks, there’s plenty to talk about this week.

Ensuring Gender Parity

Law360 published an article [paywall] written by Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph of Culhane Meadows PLLC about how law firms can ensure that the current gender parity among associates lasts until when those associates become partners. The things they suggest are transparency and compensation, working conditions, and going beyond policies to actually walk-the-walk. As they say: “When you don’t recognize that the system is broken, or the value in fixing it, it’s hard to justify committing the time and resources to the problem.”

Number of Women in Mid-Law Partner Classes Stays Stagnant

Law360 also reported [paywall] that the number of women in mid-law partner classes has been relatively stagnant since 2022. Of the 524 partner promotions announced by 108 mid-law firms in January 2024, 41.7% were women. In 2023, the number was 40.4% and in 2022 the number was 41.8%. The numbers were particularly discouraging because, as the article says “[i]n general, mid-law firms are more likely than larger firms to do a better job of promoting women into partnership ranks.”

The Truth About Women Litigators

The Orange County Register published an article entitled The Truth About Women Litigators that offers the familiar sobering statistics about gender discrimination in the legal profession, and then profiles three California women litigators for the story.

It’s Worse for Black Women

An article in Fortune discusses how, particularly in light of DEI backlash, Black professional women are struggling in the workplace. They have good reason to feel that way: black women comprise 7.4% of the U.S. population, but occupy 1.4% of C-Suite positions and 1.6% of senior vice-president roles. And, while white women make 80 cents on the dollar, Black women make 69 cents.

A Follow-Up Glass Cliff Story

Shortly after the Comes Now issue on the glass ceiling and glass cliff, there was quite a bit of news about high-profile women in business who were set up to fail.

The first was Under Armour CEO Stephanie Linnartz, who, after having the number two position at Marriott International, was given three years to turn UA around. She ended up leaving after a year, with UA founder Kevin Plank to reassume the CEO role in April. A Fortune article [paywall] explains that Linnartz was set up to fail from the beginning: Plank never wanted to give up control of the company, even when it was facing slowing growth, a plummeting share price, fading brand popularity, and Plank kept doing stupid things to hurt the brand’s image. As Fast Company put it:

Then there was Helena Helmersson’s departure from retailer H&M. Even though her male predecessor remained at the company for 10 years, Helmersson lasted only four. This Fortune article talks about how the tenures of women CEOs are typically shorter than men’s.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal published an article [paywall] about how Goldman Sachs women aren’t getting the top jobs and are therefore leaving the company in droves. Roughly two-thirds of the women who were partners at the end of 2018 have left the firm or no longer have that title. No woman currently runs a major division or is seen internally as a credible candidate to succeed the current CEO. Only one of the eight executive officers are women. Bloomberg subsequently summed up the state of affairs as follows:

Sound familiar? Compare all of the above stories to that [paywall] of incoming Sephora CEO Artemis Patrick, who after being at the company for 18 years is getting to take over at a time when the company’s stock price is surging. Lesson: when you don’t set them up to fail, women are great leaders.

There’s Something In Between the Mommy Track and the Corporate Ladder

In a follow-up to a series she did on parenting during the pandemic, Jessica Grose wrote an article [subscription required] about how parents continue to look for jobs that allow them to work remotely, so they can be more flexible when their children are young. Grose observes that, though traditionally people have thought that women are either rocketing up the corporate ladder or taking the “Mommy Track,” remote work has opened up more shades of gray—for men and for women—when they need flexibility in different parts of their lives.

The Resilient Woman’s Guide to Conquering Obstacles

The American Bar Association has a new addition of Her Story: The Resilient Woman’s Guide to Conquering Obstacles available on its website. I haven’t read it yet but will. If you get a chance, let me know what you think.

Women’s Emotional Labor

The BBC published an article on the cost of women’s emotional labor in the workplace. (We discussed this in a previous issue of this newsletter.) Not only do women tend to take more jobs in roles that require emotional labor (nursing, teaching, childcare, social work, and hospitality), but, in male-dominated industries, they tend to take on the emotional labor as well. As Rose Hackman, the author of a 2023 book on the subject says:

The article makes clear that women’s assumption of emotional labor has career (because we have to devote time to things men aren’t asked to do), financial (because we’re not paid for this work), and emotional (because it’s draining) costs to working women.

How Men Can Be Better Allies

In honor of Women’s History Month, Fortune published this particularly good article about how men can be better allies to women at work. The first suggestion is enrolling other men in your efforts. It’s one thing to be an ally when called upon, but it’s another to encourage other men to do so—because that relieves women of the work of having to ask men to step up. The second suggestion (my personal favorite) is to let go of the need to be “the good guy.” Saying you’re a good guy just says you’re not overtly sexist but doesn’t do anything to challenge systemic injustice. The third suggestion is, of course, to listen to—and believe—women.

Who Still Works From Home?

The New York Times [subscription required] published a lengthy article analyzing the people who continue to work from home. Short answer: they typically have high levels of education and are more often white and Asian. And, while women are more likely than men to work remotely, it turns out that’s largely because more women have college degrees. However, as shown below, mothers are much more likely to work remotely than fathers:

Japan Finds That, When Women Are Supported, They Enter the Workplace

An interesting article in the New York Times [subscription required] explains how Japan is seeing a surge of women in the workplace after the country put measures into place to support working parents. While the economists (all men) quoted in the article were surprised about the number of women who entered the workplace when such measures were put into place (see figure below), it certainly doesn’t surprise any of us.

The article candidly acknowledges that increasing the number of childcare centers and other family-friendly policies has not been a panacea. While such efforts have gotten Japanese women into the workplace, they still haven’t risen to upper management levels to the same degree. And there needs to be further analysis about whether Japanese women are stepping into quality jobs, rather than just entering the workforce at the entry level.

Women’s Household Labor Finally Counts

In the “this should have happened a century ago” column, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has finally announced that it intends to add household work to the Consumer Price Index Consumption Survey. It did so after a report concluded that women provide nearly 80% of household services that are crucial to spending and living standards, such as childcare and do-it-yourself repairs.

No Comes Now Next Week!

Next week I’ll be taking Spring Break with my family, so there will not be any issues of Comes Now. I look forward to reconnecting with you when I return!

Share Comes Now!

If there are other areas of the legal profession where we find too little women, reach out! I’d love to make that topic my next issue.

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