A Note From Our President

November 2011

 

I am honored to serve as the President of Washington Women Lawyers during its 41st year.  Over the past four decades, WWL has worked to promote the full integration of women in the legal profession.  Due in part to WWL and other organizations like it, the face of the legal profession has changed considerably.  Greater numbers of women are entering the profession now than ever before.  In fact, currently nearly half of all law school graduates are women. 

 

With all the progress that has been made, we are often asked whether WWL is still a necessary organization.  After all, if half of the attorneys entering the profession are women, hasn’t the full integration of women in the legal profession been achieved?  While it is true that the optics of the legal profession have changed, women attorneys still face many real, albeit less obvious obstacles.  To see the challenges women attorneys still face, one need only look at some statistics. 

 

First, despite making up nearly half of all law school graduates, women are still significantly underrepresented in our country’s judiciary.  Although Washington fairs better than some states in this regard, there is still room for improvement.  In Washington, only 22 percent of federal court judges and 31 percent of state court judges are women.  Obviously, this gender disparity is not due to some innate jurisprudential prowess of the male gender.  

We see a similar disparity in private practice.   Statistics show that retention of women in private practice lags far behind men.  For instance, one study found that the average time in private practice for a woman is 9 ½ years, compared to 19 ½ years for her male counterpart.  Another study found that women are twice more likely than men to cite the need for work/life balance as the driving force behind their decision to leave private practice.
 
In my mind, statistics like this beg the question: what is at the root of these continued gender disparities?  After all, in order for women to be fully integrated into the legal profession, shouldn’t we ensure that women are not seeking the bench or remaining in private practice by choice and not because they feel they cannot be successful within these environments?

 

It is these questions that WWL hopes to focus its efforts on this year.  I look forward to leading WWL as it tackles these tough issues. 

 

On behalf of WWL, I thank you for your continued support.   
 

Alison Bettles

2011-2012 WWL President