The title of the article is Gender Still Matters: Effects of Workplace Discrimination on Employment Schedules of Young Professionals. The authors of this article are Gabriele Plickert and Joyce Sterling both of whom are affiliated to California State Polytechnic University Pomona in the United States and Denver University in the USA respectively. Gabriele Plickert is a psychology and sociology professional while Joyce Sterling is a law professional. The article was published by Laws, which is a scholarly journal that allows access to the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). The publishing of the article was on 27th November 2017.
Conceptualization
1) Statement of the Problem/Topic
The rising interest among women towards the legal profession has transformed the scope practice. However, gender is still an issue especially with the balancing of workplace activities and family responsibilities among women lawyers. The research pursues work schedules and work-time comparisons as factors that impact workplace characteristics and personal outlook in legal practice.
2) Social Theory
The authors highlight social theories that impact the career advancement of women lawyers in the legal profession. First, work-life balance has been highlighted as a hindrance to career opportunities for women lawyers. In the study, women lawyers have a challenge balancing between work responsibilities and family responsibilities. Therefore, those with children end up getting penalized due to stereotypes that mothers in the legal profession are not as committed to work as those without children. In fact, the authors have noted that parental roles and gender stereotypes are used to define the ability of women in the legal profession to advance their careers. Secondly, work schedules show that women in legal practice adjust from full-time to part-time due to the collision between children and work responsibilities. The authors indicate that adjustments affect career development and challenges employment opportunities in the future. Finally, employment satisfaction is necessary in the legal profession so as to enhance work commitment and prove productive. However, women in the legal profession are found to lack employment satisfaction, especially those with children because they are focused on a work-life balance. Further, women with children in the legal profession are considered less likeable and hostile compared to those without children. As a result, a hyped female employee demonstrates work commitment, especially when children are not involved. The authors are therefore keen on addressing the challenges of gender inequality in the legal profession in terms of its impact on work schedules, employment satisfaction and workplace discrimination.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Women in legal practice are more likely to leave the profession at an early stage compared to men. In fact, they can move out before making decisions regarding partnership. Further, 65 percent of women in legal practice in the United States have in the past considered switching jobs than 60 percent of men in the period between 2003 and 2007 (Plickert & Sterling 3). Arguably, the high attrition rate associated with women in law firms is due to the lower chances of success especially in partnership promotions. Women tend to pursue alternative professions or leave legal professions because they are more diverse than men. Gender inequality is a common issue especially in the legal profession is a major cause of the increased exit from the profession by female lawyers. In most cases, however, women lawyers leave the legal profession as they have a challenge balancing work and life responsibilities. In fact, most of them have conflicting responsibilities that end up affecting their ability to attain career advancement in the legal profession. The presence of children at home has been used as an assumption for part-time work schedules among women in the legal profession. Hence, a shift in work schedules in legal practice hinders the ability to rise to top positions for women with children as they do not portray commitment to work. The attention that is given to childcare has increased for men and women since 1985 (Plickert et al. 3). Despite the increase in the number of hours allocated to childcare, women with full-time working schedules prior to having children still had the same desire after having children. Women in legal practice experience greater challenges than men. In particular, young female professionals tend to have higher expectations for career advancement and fulfilled personal lives.
Gender stereotypes and parental roles give employers the impression of adequate work-family balance based on their experience and socialization. Evidently, mothers and fathers in legal practice are compared using different standards in the context of parental role and gender. Women in employment were likely to dedicate more care compared to fathers while employed fathers were considered as better parents compared to the mothers. Women professionals portray low employment satisfaction compared to men. However, men and women tend to have same job satisfaction levels. Moreover, overall job satisfaction is similar despite the specific aspects that cause dissatisfaction among women. In fact, women demonstrated satisfaction based on the work substance. Job satisfaction in legal practice is contradicted by gender equality. It is therefore difficult to ascertain job satisfaction in an environment where gender equality is an issue worth addressing. While the legal profession is characterized by gender stereotypes, it is a challenge to ascertain employment satisfaction for both genders.
Workplace conditions also impact career advancement in the legal profession. In fact, intensified inequalities among legal professionals hinder their career progress. Further, women are assumed to have less commitment and motivation towards their careers. The stereotyped beliefs at the workplace result in simple assignments being allocated to women while men handle the tough ones. This affects women’s career advancement and progress in the long run. High status professions have the masculine image aligned with long working hours hence workplace dedication. Also, the notion of women lacking commitment to work commences with the intention to get married as it is assumed they will be pregnant. Women who go on maternal leave will have challenges coping with work when they resume due to odd treatment. In this case, women’s commitment towards work is evaluated and assigned simple tasks since they are considered less competent (Plickert et al. 4).
CURRENT STUDY
1) Variables
The independent variables in the study are practice settings, workplace discrimination, job satisfaction and commitment. The dependent variable is the individual background characteristics of males and females in the legal profession. The study examines the professional experiences and careers of men and women lawyers in terms of how their identity corresponds to personal roles. The authors have emphasized on employment schedules as the measurable outcome to establish their impact on career advancement among women lawyers.
2) Hypothesis/Hypotheses or Research Question
The varying work schedules among fathers and mothers in the law profession are attributed to their encounters of workplace discrimination. The authors indicate that workplace discrimination experiences among mothers are greater than those of fathers regardless of work similarity and the number of children. Hence, parental roles are proposed to strengthen the impacts of inappropriate full-time schedules along with gender stereotypes in the legal profession.
3) Sample
The study sample comprised of 5000 women and men lawyers in the United States. The sample included lawyers attached to eighteen legal markets with the most common being from Los Angeles, the District of Columbia, New York City and Chicago. Random sampling technique was used in the study.
4) Research Method
The data was collected using surveys that examined employee experiences at the workplace to establish an understanding of how work-life balance hinders employment schedules. The data was collected in the United States and involved lawyers who commenced legal practice in 2000 and were surveyed in the period between 2002 and 2007. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics that entailed an estimation of quantitative data on the three aspects of workplace discrimination namely commitment, worker expectations and performance.
CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS
The study shows that women lawyers and mothers in particular still have lower chances of around the clock employment opportunities compared to fathers. Despite that employment satisfaction encourages full-time employment, workplace discrimination experience seems to trouble working schedules for mothers and eventually hinder their personal and career life paths. Arguably, gender still matters, especially with the social and gender role explanations that show the legal profession is prepared in a way that the primary value is given to workplace expectations of the masculine gender. In this case, male employees can work for long hours and give priority to work over family. Marital status and more household tasks caused a decline in working full time. The results illustrate that fathers rarely encounter discrimination at work and in the event it happens, it does not alter their productivity at work. Hence, the results align with the research on job competence inferences and standards evident between parental and gender role. The detailed analyses are helpful in deconstructing variations in employee tasks in the sample during their initial years of practice. Charts were presented in the results and they entail employment schedules, experiences of workplace discrimination, full-time employment and parenthood.
Limitations
Despite the valuable contribution on the correlation between undesirable workplace attributes and employment agenda, the findings indicate an effect of home and work on employment programs. In order to recognize the relationship, approaches and measures are necessary for the estimation of lasting effects connecting personal and work so as to be aware of the social roles. Also, the study focuses on working parents in the workforce in the initial stage of gathering data. The respondents who do not work partly or fully in the first two waves lack current experiences about workplace discrimination. Hence, the study was not as detailed as it purports in highlighting workplace discrimination among young lawyers. Finally, the connection amid work-life balance and employment decisions hinder both qualitative and quantitative research. The integration of information from these two methods enhances accurate results about decisions made by women and men lawyers. I would modify this study by incorporating measures that combat workplace discrimination such as workplace diversity to assess the different experiences of men and women without children, their social roles and responsibilities. I would also apply the concepts to a work environment that promotes diversity to help move away from usual expectations surrounding family and work.
Works Cited
Plickert, Gabriele, and Joyce Sterling. "Gender Still Matters: Effects of Workplace Discrimination on Employment Schedules of Young Professionals." Laws 6.4 (2017): file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/laws-06-00028-v2.pdf
