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The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of health and associated outcomes for women lawyers. It was also to identify promising avenues of research to improve the legal profession for women. The systematic literature review was conducted using five databases. Papers were first selected by eliminating the duplicates, then by analyzing the title and abstract, and, finally, by reading the papers in full. Twenty-six articles met the inclusive and exclusive criteria. Women lawyers' health determinants fall under four main categories: working conditions, organizational culture, psychological violence at work, and health determinants outside of work. The outcomes were separated into three categories: physical outcomes, psychological outcomes, and work-related outcomes. The conclusions of this study show the significant difficulties women face advancing in their career and balancing their work and family responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examine the degree to which sentencing patterns in Texas capital cases vary by the gender of the prosecutor. In so doing, we explore the possibility that a factor unrelated to the crime influences whether the death penalty is sought and whether it is imposed. Methods: Across more than 14,000 capital cases prosecuted in Texas between 1978 and 2018, we use bivariate data and logistic regression to explore the relationship between prosecutor gender and the sentences sought and imposed in capital cases. We control for various details of the crime, victim and defendant demographics, and political variables. Results: Bivariate data reveal that women district attorneys pursued fewer death sentences and ultimately produced fewer death sentences than men. A logistic regression estimates capital case defendants were over 30 percent more likely to be sentenced to death if they faced a male district attorney than a female district attorney. Conclusion: The difference in death penalty imposition based on prosecutor gender is consistent with a theory of masculine focal concerns which suggests differences in the sentencing decision‐making processes of women and men. The results contribute to a growing collection of evidence showing that death penalty cases are affected by factors other than the severity of the crime and the culpability of the defendant, suggesting that case outcomes are subject to "arbitrary" influences that the courts have otherwise deemed suspect and potentially unacceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender inequality in the workplace is an ever-evolving discussion. One aspect of gender inequality that is frequently overlooked is the leadership gap--the lack of representation of women in the top positions of their respective careers. Research demonstrates that the leadership gap is particularly pronounced in the legal field. This Article analyzes the factors within the legal field that perpetuate the leadership gap and examines the unique, confounding qualities of careers in national security to illustrate an exacerbated problem of inequality for women lawyers in national security. The lack of adequate diversity in people working in--and leading--the nationalsecurity field has been described as "one of the most significant national security challenges of our time." Drawing on the bipartisan Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, this Article details how the leadership gap is a significant national-security concern and proposes multi-faceted solutions to increase the diversity of women lawyers in national security, thereby improving conflict resolution efforts and global stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adds to a growing body of literature that aims to correct the traditional lack of attention to the role of women lawyers who have exercised their power as active citizens by participating in legal reform and facilitating access to social justice for all Australians. The paper highlights the unique contribution to gender equality of one such woman, Eve Mahlab AO, through a close examination of her oral history, which was drawn from the pilot stage of a project that now comprises a corpus of over fifty interviews recorded with 'trailblazing' Australian women lawyers. The methodology adopted is innovative in combining a legal analysis and a discourse analysis of the interview with Eve Mahlab. This approach offers insights into those aspects of her personal and professional biography that most influenced and enabled her contributions in the public and private spheres, allowing us to publicly acknowledge and record them. The paper demonstrates how such use of oral history broadens and deepens our understanding of the diverse social and professional forces that shape political consciousness and motivate feminist engagement in civic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-screen female advocates have been the subject of investigation in a growing body of literature over the past two decades. Celluloid depictions of women lawyers in the Middle East are less common. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining two films: In Between and The Accused. These films were chosen for two reasons. First, they constitute rare cinematic representations of female lawyers' personal lifestyles and the way these lifestyles inform professional identity. Secondly, they evoke detraditionalized versions of gender while emphasising the construction of new on-screen femininities not that far off from modern day legal practice. This paper consists of three parts. The first part examines the striking similarities in the way both films portray female lawyers as role models and outsiders in the legal profession. The second part situates the discussion of the two films within the consumer-based, pleasure-seeking attitude associated with the new aesthetics of legal practice. The third part draws parallels between the fictional representations of the female lawyers in the two films and the reality of legal practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay explores the work of U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a lawyer in the 1970s that marked a major advancement for women's rights, driven by a legal strategy she developed to systematically eliminate gender roles in the society. It describes the discrimination experienced by women. It discusses Ginsberg's project that aimed to show that the barriers that prevented women from working harmed men, and barriers that kept men from caring for children harmed families.

The representation of female lawyers in film and television has long been indicative of wider issues of patriarchal crisis. Seminal works by Cynthia Lucia (Framing Female Lawyers, 2005) and Orit Kamir (Framed: Women in Law and Film, 2005) have alerted us to the ambivalent representations of female lawyers as personifications of progress, embodiments of social justice and epithets of powerful career women. Women lawyers, Lucia contends, regularly end up on trial themselves for violating norms of femininity and rebelling against patriarchal authority. This paper analyses the representation of female lawyers in the BBC drama The Split (2018–2022) and suggests a more positive reading of female ambivalence. The paper is informed by law and visual culture theory, professional identity theory and community of coping theory to shed light on the emotional complexities, tensions and conflicts that divorce lawyers manage daily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including newspaper predictions of future women lawyer's working lives; BBC's early radio programmes for women and life of Edith Summerskill, an important feminist reformer of the twentieth century.

The lives and careers of early medical doctors have long been studied, and early women lawyers have been the subject of considerable academic and professional activity particularly in the years leading up to the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, but comparatively little attention has been paid to early chartered surveyors. This paper introduces Irene Barclay, the first woman to qualify as a chartered surveyor, in 1922. Her family background informed her politics and ethos and her career choice will be set against a consideration of the career options available, the preparation for a professional life laid by Octavia Hill's house manager training system and the development and professionalisation of housing management after Hill's death. Barclay's place in urging and mentoring other women to professional qualification is reviewed, along with the role of professional and women's networks. The paper draws on Barclay's work in the public and private sector (simultaneously) over a career lasting from just after World War I until her retirement in 1972 and finds that, after the opportunities opened from 1919, the progress of women in chartered surveying was, into the twenty-first century, still very slow and continues to be low (with on 15% female in 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between first-wave feminist political activism and the professional identities of early women lawyers through detailed contextual consideration of two women: Elsie Bowerman and Chrystal Macmillan. Bowerman was a keen member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She was Christabel Pankhurst's election agent for the 1918 general election and founded the Women's Guild of Empire with fellow suffragette Flora Drummond. Bowerman was called to the Bar in 1924 and practised until 1938. Chrystal Macmillan was a leading member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the first woman to plead her case in the House of Lords, and a successful barrister whose feminist politics extended beyond the granting of suffrage to women. Much of her post-World War One activism focused on opposing the practice of assigning married women their husband's identity. This article illuminates the multiple links between Bowerman and Macmillan's roles as barristers and political activists, by exploring the ways in which complex societal expectations of women's behaviour interacted with their wish to challenge gendered inequality. Consequently, it complicates our understanding of women entering the professions, feminist activism, and the relationship between law and politics during the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 1923, the fledgling BBC launched its first daily programme to be aimed at a female audience, the short-lived Women's Hour. A popular feature was talks on careers: museum curator, almoner, optician, solicitor, athletics organiser were amongst the newly possible professions that were discussed. By the 1930s, female politicians, lawyers and childcare specialists were discussing their work as established experts, while during the Second World War, naval architects, photographers and life insurance underwriters were lauded as novel female jobs. Woman's Hour, which was launched in 1946, as well as frequently featuring expert female guests, grappled with a post-war landscape where a return to a career was becoming a possibility for women, once children were grown. This article uses the BBC's early radio programmes for women as a means to explore the ways in which professional women were represented to its listening public, over a period of thirty-two years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 23 December 1919 ushered in a new dawn for women: the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 (SDRA) received Royal Assent, thus finally enabling women to join the professions, and in particular the legal profession. This legislation was not a benign gift from the establishment in recognition of women's war effort, but rather the result of a successful feminist campaign vociferously fought for by women and supportive men. Newspapers, both local and national, greeted women's admission to the professions with both celebration and hope, and so did some women. However other women were ambivalent about the SDRA, and welcomed it because it was better than nothing. These women predicted a harder and more prolonged struggle for substantive equality lay ahead. Their foreshadowing was proved correct, as inequality is still rife in the legal profession today. This article will explore some contemporaneous newspaper commentary on the passing of the SDRA, and compare and contrast it with what is known of the legal careers of the first cohort of women lawyers. These reports provide us with an invaluable insight and understanding of the passing of the Act, the hopes and expectations, as well as the doubts and disbeliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition, the article highlights that by consciously portraying women lawyers as particularly talented and professionally successful, television shows such as I Onna wa sore wo yurusanai i challenge dominant biased attitudes towards female lawyers in Japan. The article studies Sujata Massey's I Perveen Mistry Investigates i three-part novel series and its lawyer-detective heroine Perveen Mistry, who is based on Cornelia Sorabjee and Mithan Lam, the first female Indian lawyers. The article contends that the portrayal of Perveen Mistry is noticeably different from more common depictions of women lawyers in screen productions for two main reasons. [Extracted from the article]

Sujata Massey's lawyer-detective heroine Perveen Mistry is based on the real-life Cornelia Sorabji and Mithan Lam, the first female Indian lawyers. Over the course of three published novels, Mistry is shown as a true hero with agency over her life, one who investigates, gets into trouble, and ultimately solves cases, albeit with a little help from others. While there has been some representation of women legal professionals in Indian movies or series, the Perveen Mistry series marks the first such depiction in print. Since Mistry is based on real female lawyers, Massey has remained true to the historical realities of pre-Independence India. In this paper, I will examine how realistic is the portrayal of Perveen Mistry as India's first female lawyer, drawing comparisons with Sorabji's and Lam's lives and the lived experiences of women lawyers today. I will also undertake a close textual reading of the novels to attempt a socio-political analysis of the three books' plots and their role in making or breaking the female lead character. Emphasis will be placed on the interconnected themes of gender, religion, time, and law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how the 2017 Emirati legal drama Justice: Qalb Al Adala depicts its female lead character, young lawyer Farah Hassan Ahmed, as she establishes herself professionally in Abu Dhabi's legal sector. As the first Emirati television show on Netflix, Justice: Qalb Al Adala targets a global audience that is invited to learn about Abu Dhabi's legal and justice system. It was created by US producers Walter Parkes and William M. Finkelstein and written by US screenwriter Carol Wolper. The show was co-produced by the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, the emirate's highest judicial authority, and can thus be viewed as an "official" representation of the legal and justice system in the United Arab Emirates and its personnel. The present article argues that in portraying the woman lawyer Farah, Justice: Qalb Al Adala replicates several problematic themes that have been previously observed in US law-related screen productions, particularly from the 1980s and 1990s. Yet in other instances, the show advances a much more progressive and positive picture of female legal professionals. In addition, the article concludes that, as an idealized combination of "modernity" and "tradition", Farah's character can be understood as a visualization of a preferred contemporary Emirati national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in the Arab world have never had better access to education and professional careers. Despite this, gender stereotypes are hampering women's progression towards gender equality. This article considers how the representation of women in film is contributing to the issue. The representation of female lawyers in Lebanese and Egyptian cinema over the last 75 years demonstrates gender disparity. On the scarce occasions when female lawyers are represented, they are confined to a caretaker role and associated with family disputes. By associating female lawyers with the family, they are put into the traditional Arab role of a woman, reinforcing the imbedded stereotypes that hamper the career progression of Arab women. We do not see male family members contributing to family obligations, which would demonstrate a significant move towards gender parity. Female lawyers are often defined by a relationship, romantic or otherwise, with a male protagonist. This perpetuates the patriarchal norm that Arab women are subordinate to their male relatives. There has been a shift towards greater gender equality in the representation of female lawyers in contemporary portrayals in Lebanese cinema. However, female lawyers still most often appear in isolation, giving them the status of an anomaly, the "Other". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clair Huxtable was the iconic mother, wife, and lawyer on The Cosby Show, an American television sitcom that premiered in September 1984. She appeared to be the perfect lawyer—partner in a law firm, prepared for every case, triumphant in every case, and never stepping over, or anywhere near, the boundary line of legal ethics—all while mothering children ranging in age from 5 to 20 years and supporting her equally successful obstetrician/gynecologist husband. In all her perfection, Clair presumably inspired young women to become lawyers during the middle 1980s through the early 1990s, and beyond. Clair Huxtable was a tough act to follow. The Black women lawyers who came after her on scripted television brought more realism to what it really means to be Black, woman, and a lawyer. These characters have helped direct the professional identities of their real counterparts in the decades since Clair entered our living rooms. This article explores the images of Black woman lawyer characters on scripted television since 1984 and how those images compare or contrast with Clair Huxtable and real-life Black women lawyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most Japanese legal dramas feature a male protagonist as the hero, a significant amount of screen time is allocated to the courtroom heroine as well. This is in spite of statistics that show that women are still underrepresented in the Japanese legal profession. Surveying post-2000 Japanese legal television dramas reveals that televisual female legal professionals conform to two stock character types and corresponding narrative arcs: the rookie lawyer, and the elite but "fallen" lawyer. While most shows only feature one such heroine, Onna wa sore wo yurusanai (2014) features two, representing both types. This paper closely examines how the two stock characters are portrayed in this drama and the relevance of each to the larger narrative which reveals the difficulties female legal professionals face while navigating Japan's male-dominated legal domain. The paper concludes that the increasing presence of the heroine in legal dramas and her overall positive portrayal, reflects the Japanese government's goal of raising the number of legal professionals and women's participation in all public sectors by 2020, and also indicates changing attitudes on the part of Japanese society toward the need to give greater recognition and social acceptance to female legal professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Justice Geraldine Hines is presented. He highlights her pioneering role in the legal field, breaking barriers for lawyers who looked like her and inspiring younger generations of all races and genders to follow her path to the bar and the bench. He also touches on the struggles she faced as a young Black woman lawyer in an era dominated by white male lawyers.

While existing approaches to workplace stratification illuminate how relational and demographic processes impact workplace inequalities, little research has sought to disaggregate the experiences of professional women at the intersection of race and ethnicity. This study explores how workplace demography intersects with relationships among women to shape the experiences of women of color in professional careers. Relying on a mixed methods study of barriers to advancement among women lawyers, we find that the presence of women in an organization has little to no effect on the token pressures women of color experience in predominantly White-male organizations. We conclude increasing women's overall representation is necessary but insufficient for addressing the challenges women of color face navigating professional careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity is an inherent feature of democratic nations. However, in many democracies such as India, the judiciary does not reflect the rich diversity of the country. Most judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts in India are cis-gender, upper-caste men. This homogenises the perspective on law and justice. Women judges and lawyers are faced with structural barriers such as gender stereotypes, discrimination, harassment, and insufficient institutional and infrastructural support. Additionally, caste, class, sexuality, and religious identity are some factors that create multiple axes of oppression to contend with. Through a critical examination of various feminist lenses, we highlight the systemic and implicit biases that lead to disproportionately low numbers of women judges. We then recommend institutional reforms that could facilitate the creation of a more diverse higher judiciary in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the transnational relationships between women lawyers from Poland and Spain that developed within the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers (Fédération Internationale des Femmes des Carrières Juridiques, FIFCJ) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Drawing on archival material and published sources, it traces the history of relations between the Spanish lawyer María Telo Núñez and the Spanish Association of Women Lawyers, and Zofia Wasilkowska and Maria Stypułkowska from the Section of Women Lawyers (Sekcja Kobiet Prawników, SKP) of the League of Women (Liga Kobiet) in Poland. Women lawyers from both countries joined the Federation at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, and met at international meetings, two of which were held in Warsaw and Madrid. This analysis focuses on the forms and meanings of exchange between these women and their influence on legal changes in civil and family legislation in Poland and Spain during the mid-1970s. Developing a mutual interest in the family law of both countries, these women strategically framed their activity as apolitical. Transnational relationships between lawyers and activists from two contrasting dictatorships reveal the importance of professional networking in overcoming political and ideological divides in the struggle for women's rights in Cold War Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attorneys' ability to secure justice-votes is shaped by gender schemas, subconscious expectations which hold women should use more emotion than men. This poses few problems for male attorneys since men and attorneys are both expected to avoid emotion. But, women are placed in a double-bind with competing professional and personal expectations. We argue gender schemas are not static rather they change with the context of the Court. Introducing a new dataset inclusive of all oral arguments from 1979 to 2016, we utilize quantitative textual analysis and find gender schemas predict securing justice-votes as the Bar becomes more diverse and justices become more conservative. Our results raise normative concerns about female attorneys' ability to substantively contribute to the Court's case law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work-family border theory casts individuals as protagonists who are enactive rather than reactive in shaping borders between work and personal life domains. To what extent is this the case in strongly patriarchal contexts that constrain women's personal agency? This qualitative study conducted with 32 female lawyers, magistrates and justices in Nigeria shows how participants engage in new border management tactics in response to context-specific institutional and social factors. Faced with public harassment and physical assault in a country where violence against women is normalised, female legal professionals restructure family borders to extend no further than their homes and retain police attachés as border-keepers. When their families are reconfigured via nonconsensual polygamous marriages, women's work borders are strengthened by co-wives performing domestic labour and family borders are strengthened by co-wives' assistance with job tasks, thereby reducing participants' work-family conflict. Rather than strategically enacting work-life borders within known situational constraints, Nigerian female legal professionals react to involuntary events that limit their agency to negotiate desired work and personal lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past several decades, women have made up roughly half of law school classes and the ranks of entering law firm associates. Attrition between entry to law firms and partnership results in women comprising 20% to 25% of partners. But is there yet more attrition to the top of the partnership pyramid? Analyzing the past decade of data on publicly filed M&A deals and detailed biographical information of M&A lawyers, we find that women make up fewer than 10% of deal leaders. When we look at the factors that determine who becomes a deal leader, we find that credentials—both educational and professional—matter. But they matter more for women. And one credential—attending a top law school—seems to matter a lot. Using conversations with senior lawyers, we try to get answers for why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents an interview with Missouri Supreme Court chief justice Mary R. Russell. Topics discussed include her duties at the Missouri Court of Appeals prior to her chief justice appointment in 2004, the recorded increase in the number of women lawyers and judges in Missouri, and her advice to new lawyers such as maintaining professionalism at all times and complying to ethical standards.