Lawyers Say They Face Persistent Racial and Gender Bias at Work

According to a newly-released ABA study, women and people of color report feeling that they are held to a higher standard than other colleagues, and only half of women of color reported having equal access to meaningful assignments that lead to promotion. Lawyers of both sexes (though female attorneys at a higher rate) also reported concerns that utilizing parental leave would harm their career prospects. The report makes several suggestions to interrupt the structural issues and biases that can contribute to these findings, including utilizing metrics to identify and track the type of tasks attorneys are performing, encouraging supervisors to offer specific, project-based feedback rather than generalities about skills, and ensuring that part-time attorneys do not receive proportionately less pay for their work.

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If you would like to submit content or write an article for the Women and the Law Division, please email Kara Sikorski at ksikorski@indybar.org.