Gender Diversity Definition
The law firm of Fullofself, Jenkins and Ripoff is a prestigious law firm with over thirty years of trial experience. The firm handles everything from criminal to municipal court cases. It is known as a 'good old boys' network. The firm consists of many up-and-coming attorneys.
The firm recently decided to adopt a gender diversity program, as they only had one female working at the firm, and she was in administration. Gender diversity is when a company is represented by a more equal proportion of men and women. More companies are realizing the value of having a diverse workforce. The law firm partners in our story heard that their biggest competitor was reaping huge successes and benefiting from having different perspectives on staff after hiring female attorneys.
The firm decided to hire four women who recently graduated at the top of their law school class. Soon after they were hired, the women discovered that there were some huge problems at the firm that matched society's trends on gender issues. The women put together a list of grievances and are presenting it to the partners this morning.
Gender Diversity Trends and Examples
In 2010, 70 percent of the new entrants into the workforce consisted of women. Unfortunately, even though women's presence in the business world is increasing, the compensation, rewards and available success is not. The female lawyers' grievance list reflects the very trends that all women are currently facing in the marketplace.
The law firm hired Sara, Cindy, Becky and Linda around the same time as Bob and Lou. All of the law graduates are equally trained and have the same title. The female attorneys' grievance list contains the following:
1. The women received 80 percent of the male lawyers' salary. This matches up with nationwide trends. Sara wants all of the women to have an immediate salary adjustment, as she makes $60,000 a year compared to her male counterpart's salary of $80,000.
2. Women are easily passed over for promotions compared to their male counterparts. Cindy has billed a record number of hours and won national cases, yet she heard through the grapevine that one of the less experienced male lawyers will be promoted. Cindy wants an explanation as to why she is not being considered.
3. All of the women feel that there is a glass ceiling that is hampering their success. A glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that keeps women from rising above a specific level with a company. Cindy and Sara gave the partners many examples to support their claim. Last year, a corner office opened up, and none of the women were consulted. In addition, none of the women were considered for partner track.