"Now I don't have to pretend I don't have children": "Equality" and other unconscionable bargains for women in the legal profession

Commemorated by W.B. Yeats as one of “(T)wo girls in silk kimonos, both/Beautiful, one a gazelle” , Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) is remembered for her contribution to Irish Nationalism. A supporter of the ITGWU,... [ view full abstract ]

Commemorated by W.B. Yeats as one of “(T)wo girls in silk kimonos, both/Beautiful, one a gazelle” , Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) is remembered for her contribution to Irish Nationalism.
A supporter of the ITGWU, Markievicz was a relief worker during the Dublin Lockout of 1913, and later, played a critical role, both in planning and in combat, during the Easter Rising of 1916. During hostilities, Markievicz was a sniper, and second in command at St. Stephen’s Green. Following her surrender, she was tried and convicted of treason, but was spared death by firing squad because of her gender, and was instead imprisoned.
In 1918, Markievicz was the first woman elected to the British Parliament, and in 1919, was elected to the first Dail, sought and obtained appointment as Minister for Labour.
The pursuit of Irish independence was a full time occupation for Markievizc, and coupled with the numerous periods of incarceration she endured, it is unsurprising that combining her roles as mother and revolutionary was problematic. Almost by way of footnote to her political career, it is observed that Markievicz “gave up her daughter to be raised by her mother” (Kearns, 2004, p. 452).
In remembering Markievicz’s extraordinary achievements in Irish politics, her contribution to the pursuit of equality for women in the emerging Irish state should not be underestimated. Characterising Irish women’s struggle for equality as a double “enslavement”, intertwined with, and inseparable from, the struggle for independence, Markievicz highlighted the “double battle” which women faced in establishing a role in the new nation (Steele, 2000).
Importance and Key Contributions
A century on, this paper inquires whether Irish women continue to “do battle” in their working lives or whether, as part of our commemoration of 1916, we can celebrate having achieved gender equality in the context of the Irish workplace.
Preliminary findings from a study of employees in the legal profession suggest that equality at work is both elusive and illusive and that, just as it was for Markievicz, the dual roles of mother and worker are difficult to reconcile. As one participant (a senior lawyer and mother of four) described a working environment which necessitated her pretending that she didn’t have children, the tentative conclusion which emerges from this study is that Markievicz’s denunciation of employers who“…put such disabilities in (women workers’) way that her wages are kept down and her employment is jeopardised ” ought not yet be consigned to history.


Theoretical Base
Unlike in some professions, e.g., in the sciences or in financial services, or indeed, referencing Markievicz, in politics and the military, which remain male dominated in composition, in Ireland and in the UK, women enter the solicitors’ profession in equal numbers with men (Law Society of Ireland, 2014; Law Society , 2014).
However, there remains a gender gap in pay and in promotion and women are under-represented at senior level (Scharf, et al., 2014) . Despite the promise of autonomy, prestige and lucrative pay (Felstiner & Bradshaw, 2007; Forstenlechner & Lettice, 2008), for many lawyers, the demands of the profession outweigh its compensations. Indeed for some, the “meritocracy” underpinning its compensation and promotion structure is experienced as a falsehood, as skewed, exclusionary and deeply gendered (Bolton & Muzio, 2007; Campbell & Charlesworth, 2012).
For many such lawyers, exit is the only viable option. When we consider that the majority of those lawyers who exit are women, we begin to question why attrition in law is largely a female phenomenon (Walsh, 2012).

Research Questions and Methods
This paper introduces preliminary findings from the first stage of a mixed methods, multi-phase study of career progression among female solicitors in “elite” corporate law firms in Ireland and the UK. Data were collected during semi-structured interviews with female solicitors, who were recruited using a snowball sampling technique. The interviewees initially contacted were purposively selected because they are individuals who had either achieved promotion to partnership, or exited prior to or following promotion.
This sampling technique is particularly suited to examine in depth critical cases (Bryman & Bell, 2015) and validates the selection of participants identified as having certain characteristics or features, the presence of which are critical to the research questions (Emmel, 2013), namely, what are the factors identified by women solicitors as influential in decisions to pursue promotion or quit their employment.
Preliminary Findings and Discussion
The research sought to delayer assumptions about the extent to which women solicitors enjoy equality and choice in combining their working and private lives. Assumptions that preference (Hakim, 2006) and non-adaptive choices underpinned the career strategies and outcomes of women solicitors were probed.
Participants describe the long hours demanded by the profession as a critical indicator of commitment and metric of productivity. However, long hours are also characterised as an “insurmountable” hurdle in trying to reconcile career ambitions with non-work activities or caring responsibilities, yet interviewees could not offer an alternative model. The degree to which long hours were described as a natural, unalterable phenomenon invites the question of whether equality, i.e., competing in a demanding workplace on equal terms with men (who are exempt from social and cultural expectations with regard to caring and parenting (Acker, 1990) is effectively asking women and men to make an unconscionable bargain, accepting terms and conditions which are ultimately unsustainable.
Beyond the level of analysis of the individual’s response to such working condition and whether (s)he agrees to the unconscionable bargain, a systemic analysis might draw on Thompson’s Disconnected Capitalism Theory (2003) and extend its critique of the regime of accumulation, which underpins the professional services model, to explore the disconnections between feminism and its prospects in the liberal market economy.
Such an analysis might reveal further resonances with the “double enslavement” described by Markievicz.
References
Acker, J., 1990. Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), pp. 139-158.
Bolton, S. & Muzio, D., 2007. Can't live with 'em; Can't live without 'em: Gendered Segmentation in the Legal Profession.. Sociology, Volume 41, pp. 47-63.
Bryman, A. & Bell, E., 2015. Business Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, I. & Charlesworth, S., 2012. Salaried lawyers and billable hours: a new perspective from the sociology of work.. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 19(1), pp. 89-122.
Emmel, N., 2013. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research.. 1st ed. London: SAGE.
Felstiner, W. & Bradshaw, A., 2007. Lawyers'lives, Lawyers' incomes.. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 14(1), pp. 3-20.
Forstenlechner, I. & Lettice, F., 2008. Well paid but undervalued and overworked. The highs and lows of being a junior lawyer in a leading law firm.. Employee Relations, 30(6), pp. 640-652.
Hakim, C., 2006. Women, careers, and work-life preferences. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 34(3), pp. 279-294.
Kearns, G., 2004. Mother Ireland and the revolutionary sisters. cultural geographies, Volume 11, pp. 443-467.
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Available at: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/press-releases/female-talent-woefully-underused-in-legal-profession/
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Scharf, S., Liebenberg, R. & Amalfe, C., 2014. Report of the Eighth Annual NAWL National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firm, Chicago: National Association of Women Lawyers.
Steele, K., 2000. Constance Markievicz's allegorical garden: Femininity, militancy, and the press, 1909-1915.. Women' Studies, 29(4), pp. 423-447.
Thompson, P., 2003. Disconnected Capitalism: Or why employers can't keep their side of the bargain.. Work, Employment and Society, 17(3), pp. 359-378.
Walsh, J., 2012. Not worth the sacrifice? Women's Career Aspirations and Career Progression in Law Firms.. Gender, Work and Organization., 5(508-531), p. 19.
Yeats, W. B., 1990. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. s.l.:Macmillan.

Constance Markiewicz, Feminism, Gender Inequality, Legal Profession, Long Hours, Disconnected Capitalism. [ view full abstract ]

Constance Markiewicz, Feminism, Gender Inequality, Legal Profession, Long Hours, Disconnected Capitalism.