Female Lawyers celebrate the “Day of the Woman”

The nation’s largest lawyers organization American Bar Association has proclaimed August 9th as the “Day of the Woman”, a day to celebrate female lawyers.

The ABA members are attending the 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California and celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. All attendees are wearing red to symbolize how far women are “in the red” with their pay.

“There’s nothing fair about the wage gap for women in the workplace,” said Bellows, who is declaring the Day of the Woman “the day we start a new chapter in the fight for gender equity that began 25 years ago.”

The world was a different place in 1987, when women made up just 13 percent of the lawyer population. It was the year the Supreme Court ruled that Rotary Clubs must admit women.

It was also the year female lawyers got some RESPECT when then-ABA President Robert MacCrate established the Commission on Women in the Profession to assess the status of women in the legal profession, identify barriers to advancement and recommend to the ABA action to address problems identified. He appointed Hillary Rodham Clinton to chair the 12-member group charged with securing the full and equal participation of women in the ABA, the profession and the justice system. Her first order of business was to hold public hearings around the country.

A quarter-century ago, there were no part-time work policies, no sexual harassment laws and the path to equity partnership was difficult, if not impossible. Today women make up nearly half of law school graduates, 30 percent of lawyers and 15 percent of equity partners.

And the American Bar Association is still at the forefront of securing the full and equal participation of women.

For more information about the “Day of the Woman,” go to: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/women/events_cle/2013_day_of_woman.html.