Unit D Blog #27

The competency gap between women and men in the law field is one that has been existence since the positions were first created. In the modern day we have come a long way in closing in on this gap although there is still an obvious difference. Since men dominate the positions within the law field, women start out at a disadvantage. There are certain aspects within these professions that do damage to the chances that a woman has of being promoted, but most importantly, respected in the workplace. We heard the story on NPR about the employee Ms. Shaffer who is suing GE for hiring in other places rather than within the company when she feels that she was perfectly competent to fill the role. This is an example of how men that dominate the field do not believe that woman are good for leadership roles. Part of this id due to the myth that woman are better caregivers than leaders, and woman are constantly associated with being "motherly" among various other adjectives that describe how one would enjoy being responsible for a child and so on. Woman in these fields are often faced with the bad situation of whether to act stone cold in their workplace and try to move up within the company or to have children and start/care for a family of their own. Most of the time these woman do not get the option of having both, which is unfair because the burden of carrying a baby is set completely upon the female shoulders. Change needs to be made within the workplace to allow for female professionals to hold positions of power at a rate consistent with their male counterparts, as well as to allow for them to provide for as well as care and create a family of their own. This is the only way that equality can be achieved.