International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day. While IWD has only been recognized by the United Nations since 1975, it has actually been in existence since 1911 as an opportunity for women around the world to show solidarity in the struggle for equal rights.

I was either fortunate or naive to grow up in an environment where I didn't feel like my professional options were constrained because I was a woman. I never felt like there was any reason why I could not have it "all". My Mom worked while raising five kids and I always assumed I'd do the same (work, not necessarily have five kids).

Of course then I graduated from university and realized that things would not be so simple. I had made some conscious choices during my job search to find a law firm that was family-friendly. I stayed away from the really big firms with their high billable hour targets and found a mid-sized firm with a reasonable number of women lawyers, several with children. It felt like a good fit.

On my second day there I was eating lunch with a senior associate in the lawyer's lounge. We were joined by one of the partners. I'm not sure what exactly we were talking about, but for some reason the partner went off on a rant about another - female - partner who was at that time on maternity leave. He said he couldn't understand why he had to pay to pick up her slack and that if you choose to have children you should stay home to look after them. I was mortified. The senior associate mentioned the conversation to the managing partner, who then made the offending partner call me and apologize, which was even more mortifying. All in all, not a great start.

Since then I've had the opportunity to work for much more enlightened lawyers (such as the senior associate, above). I've also encountered other lawyers who insist that we're all on the same playing field and that the concerns of female lawyers are not exclusive to their gender. The statistics, of course, prove them wrong, but it shows the attitudes we're up against.

I still don't know what form my career will take once this maternity leave is over. I just hope I can set an example for my own daughter that if she wants something enough and is flexible about how she might get there, she can indeed have it all.