Female majority still held back

More women are attending US law schools than male students for the first time ever, according to the results of a survey released at the ABA conference.

The survey shows the proportion of women students at law schools has increased from 40% in 1985 to nearly 50% in 2000.

The researchers predicted that women students will account for more than half of all enrolment when statistics are compiled for last year.

Nonetheless, women are still finding it difficult to progress to the senior ranks of the profession once they have qualified.

According to the research, in 2000 women represented only 15.6% of partners at law firms and slightly less than 14% of general counsel at Fortune 500 companies.

Women lawyers also had significantly lower levels of job satisfaction than their male counterparts.

The results showed that only 39% of women were highly satisfied with their advancement opportunities, compared with 50% of men.

The most common barriers cited were family responsibilities, exclusion from informal networks, and a lack of mentoring opportunities.

A significant proportion of ethnic minority women also found racial problems still existed.

Some 46% said clients preferred to work with white lawyers.

Another 36% maintained that racial stereotypes existed at their firms or companies.

And a quarter of ethnic minority women respondents said that being black hindered their opportunities for advancement.