Legal media outlets, ranging from the ABA Journal to Law.com, are covering in detail both the unique pressures on female lawyers and how COVID intensified those stress points.
In a sense, COVID has served to bring to the surface what female lawyers have had to long struggle with as part of their gender and, if they have a family, their role as mother.
This may mirror for some older professional women the publication of the consciousness-changing book "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963. Written by Betty Friedan it brought to the surface what it characterized as a "problem with no name."
Essentially that situation was the box society had jammed women into. Its contours were configured out of suburban motherhood with no other identities possible. Some attribute that book to kicking off the second women's movement.
What the ABA Journal article zeroes in on is that COVID forced female lawyers who were mothers into near-impossible situations.
There had been the shut-downs of schools and day-care centers.
In addition, it was probably expected that they, not the male at home, would assume the lion's share of child-care and domestic responsiblities.
Meanwhile, they had to be at Zoom meetings. Those further reduced the time available for actual work. Yes, and answer those emails.
Admittedly, remote work, as the ABA Journal article points out, might have made it easier in some ways. There was no commute. No ritualisitc interactions with co-workers. No extreme attention to appearance. No inner angst how the children were faring at home, in day-care, with the nanny or at school.
But what was obvious to these women was that their children needed them. A lot. And, surveys show, some have decided that they have to make that need a priority. To do that they might decide to temper their ambition about a career climb or to actually leave the demanding field of law.
In pop culture, that was played out on "A Million Little Things" when Katherine turned down partnership in order to have dinner with her son every evening. Her work had already destroyed her marriage and she was in the process of attempting to repair that. When invited to be partner she indicated that she had to go home nightly for that dinner and would return to the office afterward. No dice, said the powers that be. Later Katherine did leave the firm and established her own law firm.
Just as with "The Feminine Mystique," what might be called the COVID Effect could bring an awakeneing of what has been going on in the lives of female lawyers - as well as so many working women. That could create the necessity to look at all that, determine if there can be custom-made solutions and if women want to try them out.
The publication of "The Feminine Mystique" motivated many of us women to experiment with careers, relationships and lifestyles. As we reflect, some of us might assess that our lives have been different from those of our mothers. Not necessarily better or worse. Simply different.
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