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Miranda McGowan�Professor of Law�University of San Diego�The Parent Trap: Equality, Sex, and Partnership in Law Firms

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	% Women Summer Associates	% Women Associates	% Women Partners	% Women Equity Partners
1993	42%	39%	12%	n/a
2003	49%	42%	17%	n/a
2008	45%	45%	19%	n/a
2011	48%	45%	20%	15.6%
2015	48%	45%	21%	17.4%
2020	54%	47%	25%	21.3%

Statistics gathered from NALP Reports on Diversity

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Equal share of house-hold tasks

Earn nearly equal salaries

Work similar

hours for pay

Similar professional ambitions

Highly educated professional couple

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Highly educated professional couple

Moms

take maternity leaves

Dads

prioritize

work

Differen- tial pay

Differential partnership rates

Couples maximize joint income

Intensive parenting norms

Breadwinner stereotype

Moms prioritize home

Men don’t (or take short ones)

Operating in the background are expectations about men’s and women’s roles that are pretty baked in still.

Men have to be providers

Women have to be caretakers

Couples maximize joint income

Breadwinner norms make this non-optional from a male perspective

Babies!

Intensive parenting norms.

Run poll about the amount of time women spend in paid work and with kids.

Moms prioritize home and dads prioritize work.

This happens by degrees.

Women return from maternity leave just committed to their jobs as before; but as parenting wears on and wears them out, women begin to leave the workforce, especially as differential pay and differential partnership rates begin to take their toll, too. 3-5 years appears to be the tipping point; women are shocked to learn that as kids get older childcare demands actually increase and it’s harder to outsource parenting.

About 60% of women cite childcare responsibilities as driving them out of the partnership track and out of law firms.

Polls on who is responsible for arranging childcare.

32% compared to 4% takes off for a sick kid.

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Paid Paternity Leaves of Substantial Length

Breadwinner stereotype

Fosters greater gender equality at home

Fosters equality in pay/partnership rates

Dads take solo leaves of at least 1 month

Differential pay/ partnership rates