Interesting article in the Sunday New York Times, Up the Down Staircase: Why Do So Few Women Reach the Top of Big Law Firms?, by Timothy L. O’Brien:
Although the nation’s law schools for years have been graduating classes that are almost evenly split between men and women, and although firms are absorbing new associates in numbers that largely reflect that balance, something unusual happens to most women after they begin to climb into the upper tiers of law firms. They disappear.
According to the National Association for Law Placement, a trade group that provides career counseling to lawyers and law students, only about 17% of the partners at major law firms nationwide were women in 2005, a figure that has risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13% of partners were women. Even those who have made it to the top of their profession say that the data shows that women’s legal careers involve distinct, often insurmountable hurdles and that those hurdles remain misunderstood or underexamined….
Nearly half of all law school students are women, but they still represent fewer than 20% of law firm partners, on average. In some cities, the percentage is even lower:
- Highest:
- Miami: 23.7%
- New Orleans: 22.8%
- Denver: 22.3%
- San Francisco: 21.8%
- National Average: 17.3%
- Lowest:
- Orange County, CA: 12.7%
- Northern Virginia: 12.4%
- Charlotte, NC: 11.5%
- Salt Lake City: 8.7%
One response to “NY Times: Why Do So Few Women Become Partners in Big Law Firms?”
Percentage of women who are currently partners is a misleading statistic, because it includes every male partner who was made partner in the past 50 years and is still alive and working for the firm.
A more intresting number would be, “Of the people made partner in the last 5 years, what percentage are women.” I’d imagine that while certainly not at 50%, it is higher than the numbers in the article.