Women In Law: Should Women Be Paid?

In a perfect world women would receive the same pay as men, they would be seen as strong as men, and be taken as seriously as men. Unfortunately, even if women try to believe that they live in a perfect world they must remember that they do not. A woman is not set to have to same income as her fellow male co-worker, nor are they taken as seriously as their male counterpart. A female will be paid seventy-three cents in comparison to every dollar that a male with the same qualifications and career is paid. As a female, most women find this unacceptable. It is not acceptable for a woman to be paid less solely based on her gender, something that she has no control over. A lower overall income means a woman must work even harder to be able to afford the same lifestyle as a

This is also what leads me to my next point: women being taken seriously by men in the workplace. According to one women in Women in Law by Cynthia Fuchs Epstein believed that men see a female lawyers as pushovers; someone they can easily manipulate and defeat. For women, they do not believe that they are taken as seriously while working on a case by their male counterparts. (Epstein Fuchs, page 282) Women are also excluded from certain meetings and office lunches to work on cases since the venues chosen for these events to take place do not allow women to enter the premises (sport clubs, private clubs) (Epstein Fuchs, page 286.) Luckily, some law firms notice that women are becoming lawyers more now than ever, therefore making them change their policies to make sure that women are included in all work related meetings. Sadly enough, since women still live in a sexist society, many of the men still plan these events to happen in venues that exclude women. To compare how race plays a role in this take a look at a few statistics, in 2006, 11.5% of lawyers in Ontario were part of a visible minority (Ornstein, page 2) You may ask yourself: where do Aboriginal people of Canada stand in the career