1 See, e. g., F. Crosby, ed., Spouse, Parent, Worker: On Gender and Multiple Roles (1987) (“Crosby, Spouse”); K. Gerson, Hard Choices: How Women Decide About Work, Career and Motherhood (1985) (“Gerson, Hard Choices”); R. Rapoport & R. Rapoport, eds., Working Couples (1978); R. Smuts, Women and Work in America (1979); L. Tilly & J. Scott, Women, Work and Family (1978).Google Scholar

2 Gerson's book offers an incisive critique of the various explanations why women have ended up in their present position with regard to childtending. Hard Choices 23–42.Google Scholar

3 P. Roos, Gender and Work (1985); Pleck, Working Wives/Working Husbands 27–51 (1985).Google Scholar

4 See A. Campbell, P. Converse, & W. Rodgers, The Quality of American Life: Perceptions, Evaluations, and Satisfactions 404–5 (1976) (“Campbell, Converse, & Rodgers, Quality”).Google Scholar

5 Id. Google Scholar

6 See the useful summary in Greenhaus, J. & Beutell, N., “Sources of Conflict between Work and Family Roles,” Acad. Mgmt. Rev., Jan. 1985, at 10; see also J. Pleck, G. Staines, & L. Lang, “Conflicts between Work and Family Life,”U. S. Dept. of Labor, Monthly Lab. Rev., March 1980, at 29, 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 See Pleck, J., “The Work-Family Role System,” 24 Soc. Probs. 417 (1977).Google Scholar

8 See, e. g., Goode, W., “A Theory of Role Strain,” 25 Am. Soc. Rev. 483 (1960).Google Scholar

9 See review of literature in Project, ”Gender, Legal Education, and the Legal Profession: An Empirical Study of Stanford Law Students and Graduates,” 40 Stan. L. Rev. 1209, 1229–30 (1988).Google Scholar

10 J. Wallerstein & J. Kelly, Surviving the Breakup: How Children and Parents Cope with Divorce (1980); Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, “Stress and Coping: A Focus on Women,”in J. Gullahorn, ed., The Psychology of Women 95 (1979).Google Scholar

11 See Barnett, R., “Multiple Roles and Well-Being: A Study of Mothers of Pre-School Age Children,” 1 Psychology Women Q. 175 (1982).Google Scholar

12 F. Crosby, ed., Spouse (cited in note 1).Google Scholar

13 P. Thoits, “Negotiating Roles,”in Crosby, Spouse 11, 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Sekeran, U., “Factors Influencing the Quality of Life in Dual-Career Families,” 56 J. Occupational Psychology 161 (1983).Google Scholar

15 Thoits, “Roles” at 11, 17–18, and Steil & Turetsky, “Marital Influence Levels and Symptomatology Among Wives,”in Crosby, Spouse 74 (“Steil & Turetsky”).Google Scholar

16 Thoits, “Roles” at 18.Google Scholar

17 Id. Google Scholar

18 Steil & Turetsky (cited in note 15).Google Scholar

19 Id. Google Scholar

20 Epstein, “Multiple Demands and Multiple Roles: The Conditions of Successful Management,”in Crosby, Spouse (“Epstein, ‘Demands’”); see also Greenhaus, J. & Beutell, N., “Sources of Conflict Between Work and Family Roles,” Family Stud. Rev. Y. B. 299, 306 (1986).Google Scholar

21 Even two people with essentially the same aspirations and the same achievements may differ in their reports of satisfaction if they perceive differently the size of the gap between their aspirations and achievements or if they have different degrees of reluctance about expressing very high or very low satisfaction.Google Scholar

22 See, e. g., Campbell, Converse, & Rogers, Quality (cited in note 4); see also P. Smith, L. Kendell, & C. Hulin, The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and Retirement (1969).Google Scholar

23 Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers, Quality 300–301. See also F. Crosby, “Job Satisfaction and Domestic Life,”in Lee, M. & Kunango, R., Management of Work and Personal Life 41, 43 (1984) (“Crosby, ‘Job Satisfaction’”) (“Ever since researchers have kept records, they have found women workers to be subjectively content with objectively objectionable conditions.”); Weaver, , “Sex Differences in the Determinants of Job Satisfaction, 21 Acad. Mgmt. J. 265 (1978) (finding no differences and reporting ten other studies that found no differences). A few studies have found that women are as satisfied with their work as are men only if certain variables such as education, tenure, and job level are taken into account. See Kavanagh, M. & Halpern, M., “The Impact of Job Level and Sex Differences on the Relationship Between Life and Job Satisfaction,” 20 Acad. Mgmt. J. 66 (1977).Google Scholar

24 Campbell, Converse, & Rodgers, Quality 428, 432, reporting 72% of married, college-educated women and 67% of married, college-educated men very satisfied with their jobs.Google Scholar

25 Id.; F. Crosby, Relative Deprivation and Working Women 12, 64–65 (1982) (“Crosby, Deprivation”). Crosby explains the higher satisfaction of married persons in part on the ground that “a happy home life prevents a person from brooding about problems at work.”Id. at 159.Google Scholar

26 See, e. g., Weaver, 21 Acad. Mgmt. J. 265 (drawing on three national samples at different times and finding that, on average, neither working women with “babies” nor working women with “preteens” reported lower job satisfaction than other working women); Bersoff, & Crosby, , “Job Satisfaction and Family Status,” 10 Personality & Soc. Psychology Bull. 79 (1984) (drawing on several large national surveys conducted in the 1970s and early 1980s and finding no differences between married men and women with and without children-both were highly (and roughly equally) satisfied with their work. They did, however, find married men and women more satisfied with their work than single men and women.) But see R. Quinn, G. Staines, & M. McCollough, Job Satisfaction: Is There a Trend? (U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1974) (finding working women with preschool children less satisfied with their jobs than other women).Google Scholar

27 Crosby, “Job Satisfaction” at 43 (cited in note 23).Google Scholar

28 See Crosby, Deprivation, 16–23 (cited in note 25).Google Scholar

29 Id. at 158–59.Google Scholar

30 The Michigan Alumni Survey, in its early years, asked questions about work and family but only of the few women graduates. The survey instrument in the years before 1976 asked women: “If married, how does your husband feel about your career?”“How have you managed to combine work with family responsibilities?” Women but not men were asked how many children they had. In 1976 the questionnaire was revised to ask essentially the same questions of men. The questionnaire was revised again in 1981 into the form we have been reporting here.Google Scholar

31 The first major studies of women lawyers were White, J., “Women in the Law,” 68 Mich. L. Rev. 1051 (1967), and Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Women in Law (1981). For a current review and critique of the literature on women as lawyers in the United States and elsewhere, see C. Menkel-Meadow, “Feminization of the Legal Profession: The Comparative Sociology of Women Lawyers,”in Richard Abel & Phillip Lewis, Lawyers in Society: Comparative Theories 196 (1989) (“Menkel-Meadow, ‘Feminization’”). For another review of the writing about the woman as professional (particularly the woman as lawyer) in the United States, see Rhode, D., “Perspectives on Professional Women,” 40 Stan. L. Rev. 1163 (1988).Google Scholar

32 V. Drachman, “‘My “Partner” in Law and Life’: Marriage in the Lives of Women Lawyers in Late 19th and Early 20th-Century America,” in this issue of Law & Social Inquiry. For a popular history of women in the legal profession, see K. Morello, The Invisible Bar: The Woman Lawyer in America (1986).Google Scholar

33 White, 68 Mich. L. Rev. 1065; Epstein similarly found fewer than half of the mothers working full time among her sample of women attorneys interviewed in the 1970s. Much the same pattern is reported in Great Britain today. A recent report of the Law Society in Great Britain found that of women lawyers with children who were admitted to practice in 1977, only 33% were working full time, 40% were working part time, and 27% were not working. Equal in the Law, Report of the Working Party on Women's Careers (1988).Google Scholar

34 White, 68 Mich. L. Rev. at 1063. Men were more likely than women to handle litigation. Epstein found women somewhat more likely to handle estate and “blue sky” work. Epstein, Women in Law at xx.Google Scholar

35 See Abramson, J. & Franklin, B., Where Are They Now? The Story of the Women of Harvard Law 301–7 (1974)(“Abramson, & Franklin, , Where Are They Now?”); Project, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 1209 (cited in note 9) (reporting 22% of women and 13% of men working 140 or fewer hours each month).Google Scholar

36 See, e. g., J. Abramson, “For Women Lawyers, an Uphill Struggle,”N. Y. Times (Mag.), March 6, 1988, at 36 (women in a large New York law firm); Blodgett, “Whatever Happened to the Class of 1981?”ABA J., June 1, 1988, at 56 (six women who began at a Chicago law firm in 1981 and have all since left); Abramson & Franklin, Where Are They Now?; see also Yates & Goldberg, “Superwoman Is Alive and Well,”ABA J., May 15, 1987, at 18, 20.Google Scholar

37 See the review of various writings in Rhode, 40 Stan. L. Rev. at 1181–87 (cited in note 31).Google Scholar

38 Epstein, Women in Law 362 (cited in note 31).Google Scholar

39 Epstein, “Demands” at 23 (cited in note 20).Google Scholar

40 R. Hirsch, “Are You on Target?”Barrister, Winter 1985, at 17, 19, a study sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association. Hirsch also found that 13% of male “senior” associates and 25% of female “senior” associates were dissatisfied.Google Scholar

41 Project, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 1209, 1252 (cited in note 9).Google Scholar

42 Id. at 1245.Google Scholar

43 Id. at 1245–46. The study did not compare the job satisfaction of women with and women without children.Google Scholar

44 The Law School has surveyed 1968–83 graduates 5 years after graduation and 1952–73 graduates 15 years after graduation.Google Scholar

45 The second and third questionnaires were sent only to those who responded to the first questionnaire; 82% of these women responded to the second questionnaire and 86% of them responded to the third. Of the men to whom the second questionnaire was sent, 77% responded, and of those responding to the first questionnaire 86% responded to the third. In all, 63% of the women and 62% of the men in the four classes responded to the original questionnaire and at least one of the two others.Google Scholar

46 Of persons with final grade-point averages in roughly the bottom sixth of the class, only 42% of the women and 58% of the men responded, in contrast with 75% of women and 76% of men in the upper five-sixths of the class.Google Scholar

47 Another underrepresentation is also possible for which we cannot test. One group that might respond less often than others are those who feel so beleaguered by their work and other responsibilities that they do not have time to respond. This group might include a disproportionate number of the full-time working women with children. If such underreporting did occur, it might affect the validity of our central conclusions about the career satisfactions of women with children. A substantial underreporting by this group of mothers seems unlikely because the response rate for women is about the same as the response rate for men and because the number of women with children within our sample closely parallels census information on fertility for professional women.Google Scholar

48 By the same token, women were also substantially more likely than men never to have worked in private practice. (Five years out of law school, 17% of men and 33% of women had never worked in private practice.) And among women and men who had ever worked in private practice, women were substantially more likely to have left private practice to work in other settings. (Five years out of law school, 17% of men and 34% of women who had ever worked in private practice had left to work in other settings.)Google Scholar

49 B. Curran et al., Supplement to the Lawyer Statistical Report: The U. S. Legal Profession in 1985 at 3 (1986) (“Curran, Supplement”) (in 1985, of lawyers in the United States 39 or younger, 63% of women and 76% of men worked in private practice; 17% of women and 8% of men worked in government, legal services, or as public defenders); L. Vogt, From Law School to Career: Where Do Graduates Go and What Do They Do? 89–94 (1986) (reporting a complex mix: women in the class of 1974 at seven schools 11 years after graduation were less often than men in firms and more often in government, but in the class of 1981 surveyed 4 years after graduation far smaller differences were found between women and men). For figures in other nations, see C. Menkel-Meadow, “Feminization” at 211–14 (cited in note 31).Google Scholar

50 Only 4% of the Michigan women and 6% of the Michigan men in private practice worked in solo practice, in comparison to 45% of women and 41% of men in private practice under 40 as reported in the census of lawyers prepared by the American Bar Foundation. Similarly, 51% of the Michigan women and 39% of the Michigan men in private practice worked in firms with more than 50 lawyers, in comparison to 19% of the women and 14% of the men under 40 in the national survey. See Curran, Supplement 4.Google Scholar

51 Among lawyers under 40 in the national survey (id.), 33% worked for the federal government. Among the Michigan graduates working in government, 55% worked for the federal government.Google Scholar

52 Slightly fewer of the Michigan women and men were married than is the case among the American population in general. In 1980, in roughly the same age group as the Michigan group in the nation as a whole (persons aged 30–34), 77% of women and 76% of men were currently married. Bureau of the Census, 2 Subject Reports 4c, table 1, 1980 Census of the Population, Marital Characteristics. At the time of the five-year survey, 63% of the Michigan women and 68% of the Michigan men were married.Google Scholar

53 Somewhat more of the women than men within the Michigan sample had been divorced at some point in their lives-18% of women, 9% of men. On the other hand, among those who had been divorced, somewhat more of the women than men had been remarried or had a new partner by the time of the five-year survey.Google Scholar

54 In 1984, 23% of men with spouses or partners had partners who were homemakers. Some of the men who reported that their partner was a homemaker may have had a partner who was trained as an attorney.Google Scholar

55 Fifty-nine percent of women marrying since law school (as compared to 29% of those marrying before the end of law school) were married to lawyers.Google Scholar

56 In fact, only 2 of 160 men with partners responding to the 1984 survey said that they were married to a woman who earned more than they did.Google Scholar

57 Even the men who were married to professionals or managers were typically married to lesser earning professionals or managers than those to whom the women were married. As a consequence of the differences in partner occupations and status, total family income for women with partners was substantially higher than the family income for men with partners. Five years after law school, 61% of women with partners but only 25% of men with partners had joint incomes greater than $75,000. Indeed, a third of women with partners but only 6% of men with partners had joint incomes of more than $100,000.Google Scholar

58 At the time of the 1980 national census, 80% of American women between 30 and 34 had given birth to at least one child and 60% had had at least two. The data for the Michigan women are consistent with national census information that women in professional occupations such as law or medicine have lower birth rates than women in any other occupational group. Bureau of the Census, U. S. Summary, vol. 1, Characteristics of the Population, Detailed Population Characteristics, part 1, ch. D, table 271.Google Scholar

59 The proportion who had had any children rose from 37% to 56% of the women and from 41% to 61% of the men.Google Scholar

60 The differences in the reported satisfactions of married and unmarried people may be distorted by the form of the question we asked. Respondents were asked about their satisfaction with their “family” lives, not their “private” lives or their lives “apart from their careers.” Thus our question may fail to capture, especially for unmarried people, their satisfaction with their social lives apart from interactions with persons who would be considered “family.” Nonetheless our findings do parallel the findings of others who have found single persons less contented with their “family” lives and their lives on the whole than married persons and also that marital status is more significant than children in accounting for satisfaction with family life. Campbell, Converse, Rogers, Quality 336–40 (cited in note 4).Google Scholar

61 We did not ask men a comparable question about the balance of their private and professional lives, but about a third of men gave family reasons as an explanation for the lower incidence of women in private practice, suggesting that many men also believe that female attorneys pay more attention to family matters than male attorneys. See infra at 268–69.Google Scholar

62 In a study of the 1976, 1977, and 1978 graduates of Berkeley, Columbia, and Pennsylvania Law Schools, Linda Lefland found that most women with children (65%) reported spending more time with their children than their husbands or former husbands did and that even more of the men (84%) reported spending less time with their children than their wives or former wives. ”Career Patterns of Male and Female Lawyers,” 35 Buffalo L. Rev. 601, 607–8 (1986).Google Scholar

63 Conversely, 6% of men, asked the greatest advantage to them of being a male, pointed to their being free of the special family responsibilities women assume.Google Scholar

64 One married woman without children complained, for example, of the resentment her husband felt toward her high earnings, another of having to move twice to accommodate her husband's employment.Google Scholar

65 For a study of law firms' responses to lawyers' (and particularly women lawyers') family-related needs, see Note, ”Law Firms and Lawyers with Children: An Empirical Analysis of Family/Work Conflicts,” 34 Stan. L. Rev. 1163 (1982).Google Scholar

66 For the 1976–79 classes, we classified persons who reported working more than 1,500 hours per year as working full time. For the 1980–81 classes, we asked people both the numbers of hours they worked and whether they considered themselves to be working part time or full time. The mean number of hours worked by those who considered themselves part-time workers was about 1,500. A few people who said they worked full time worked less than 1,500 hours.Google Scholar

67 Of women with children, 13% report working 56 or more hours per week in comparison with 29% of women without children, 27% of men without children, and 28% of men with children. Conversely, 35% of the full-time working women with children but only 19% of the women without children averaged fewer than 45 hours of work per week.Google Scholar

68 See Note, ”Law Firms and Lawyers with Children: An Empirical Analysis of Family/Work Conflicts,” 34 Stan. L. Rev. 1263, 1289–92 (1982) (a survey of second- and third-year law students at Stanford finding that most women but few men said that policies regarding leaves and child care were a significant factor in their choice of employer).Google Scholar

69 Asked in open-ended form, without suggested responses, in the 1984 questionnaire.Google Scholar

70 The most common explanation offered by men was (and the second most common offered by women) that women were discriminated against or felt unwelcome or uncomfortable in the private firms.Google Scholar

71 At the time of the five-year survey, 55% of persons working in settings other than private practice were quite satisfied (categories 1 or 2 of 7) with the balance of their family and private lives, in contrast to 40% of those in private firms with 50 or fewer lawyers and 28% of those in private firms with more than 50 lawyers. Essentially the same differences were found for the same classes in 1986 and for the classes of 1980 and 1981 at the time of their five-year surveys.Google Scholar

72 Fewer women than men worked in private practice, but, among those in private practice, 51% of women and 39% of men worked in firms of more than 50 lawyers.Google Scholar

73 Discrimination by other attorneys and clients may, for example, be an even greater problem for women in small and mid-sized firms than it is for women in large firms.Google Scholar

74 “I think my firm is more willing to accommodate a woman's personal goals (i. e., motherhood) than a man's by allowing part-time work, reduced hours, etc.”Google Scholar

75 Married men averaged earnings of $48,900, unmarried men averaged $45,300. P. < 02. Similarly, 74% of married men and 61% of unmarried men were in private practice. On the other hand, there was no difference between the earnings of married and unmarried women, nor was there any difference in the proportions of married and unmarried women who were in private practice.Google Scholar

76 Of the members of the 1976–79 classes, 12% remember beginning law school with a plan to work for legal services for the poor, as a public defender, or in a “public interest” group. As a group these jobs pay far less than other categories of jobs available to the Michigan lawyers. We looked to see whether persons who were married at the end of law school were as likely to stick to their plans as persons who were not. We hypothesized that men who had married by the end of law school (and about a third had) would be less likely than unmarried men to adhere to their plans to work in these settings, but that women who were married (and who might feel in the position of a “second” earner) would be more likely than unmarried women to adhere to their plans. For men only, the predicted pattern held true. Of those who had planned to work in legal services or similar work, a third of the unmarried men, but only 7% of the married men actually did. Of course, it is possible that men first gave up their plans and later decided to marry but, either way, there appears, for many men, some relationship between job choices and marriage. For women, there is no significant difference between the married and unmarried women.Google Scholar

77 Whether parents or not, about 30% of men and women said they were active in electoral or nonelectoral politics. Similarly, about a third of all women and men said they were active in a bar association or other lawyer's professional group (such as the National Lawyers Guild or a trial lawyers association).Google Scholar

78 On average, women with children reported spending 2.0% of work time socializing with clients or co-workers; women without children, 3.2%; men with children, 3.8%; and men without children, 3.7%. We are doubtful about the accuracy of people's recollections about the amount of time they spend socializing with colleagues and co-workers. A great many people said they spend 0% of their time socializing, and we suspect that very few people are so pressured or misanthropic that they never chat with co-workers. On the other hand, even if there is underreporting in general, the gender differences still appear noteworthy.Google Scholar

79 In each pair of comparisons, women with children were statistically significantly more satisfied.Google Scholar

80 Among men, men with partners but no children were somewhat more satisfied with the balance than men without partners or than men with children.Google Scholar

81 For both men and women, the strongest factor in accounting for satisfaction with the balance is whether the person worked in private practice. Persons in private practice were less satisfied with the balance. But even after taking private practice into account, gender and parenting status remain significant. The five-year survey of the classes of 1980 and 1981 elicited more hours worked and the fact of working in private practice were negatively related to satisfaction with the balance. For women and men in these classes, having a spouse or partner was more strongly related to satisfaction with the balance than was having children.Google Scholar

82 In 1986, the mean of the women with children was 2.86; of women without children, 3.08; of men with children, 2.94; of men without children, 2.98. The lower the number, the higher the satisfaction. Differences not significant.Google Scholar

83 See Campbell, Converse & Rodgers, Quality 63 (cited in note 4). Asked about their overall job satisfaction on a seven-point scale much like ours, 66% of workers in a large representative sample of Americans put themselves into the two most satisfied categories and only 4% put themselves into the two least satisfied categories. They found no differences in job satisfaction between women and men. Compare tables at 428 and 432.Google Scholar

84 Table 6 does not reveal the significance levels of pairs of comparisons. In pairs of analyses of variance, women with children are significantly more satisfied with their careers overall than both childless women without partners (p < 0.005) and childless women with partners (p < 0.04).Google Scholar

85 Table 6 does not reveal the significance levels of pairs of comparisons. Women with children are significantly more satisfied with their careers than both men with children (p < 0.005) and men without children (p < 0.005).Google Scholar

86 Because of a lower response rate to the questionnaire by blacks and other persons of color, we did not include race in the variables used to try to explain difference in levels of satisfaction.Google Scholar

87 No item of information, that is, neatly divided the satisfied from the dissatisfied. As to parenting in particular, despite the fact that, on average, mothers were more happy than nonmothers, there were (as table 6 makes clear) many mothers who were not very satisfied with their careers and many nonmothers who were quite satisfied with theirs. The same was true for other variables that bore some relation to satisfaction.Google Scholar

88 In a regression on women's career satisfaction, five variables explained 17.2% of the variance (adjusted). The strongest of these was political attitude–the more liberal a woman regarded herself the less likely she was to be satisfied (7-point scale; b= 0.25, S. E. = 0.06). The second and third strongest, of nearly identical strength were final gradepoint average from law school (higher grade-point, higher satisfaction; grade point on 4-point scale; b=0.58, S. E. =0.19) and whether the woman had children (binary variable, b=0.47, S. E.=0.14). The other two significant variables, in declining order of significance, were whether the woman was currently in private practice (those in private practice less satisfied; a binary variable, b=–0.38, S. E.=0.14) and whether the woman had become a partner, supervisor, or manager (those who had were more satisfied; binary variable, b=0.41, S. E. =0.17).Google Scholar

89 We can explain even less of the variance in the career satisfaction of men than we can of the satisfaction of women. The strongest factor we can identify is income (the higher the more satisfied), the next strongest is marital/partnered status, but the two combined explain only 3.7% of the variance and other variables add little to the explained variance.Google Scholar

90 Eighty percent of them reported a level of career satisfaction no more than one level away from the level they had reported at the time of the five-year survey.Google Scholar

91 In 1986, the mean career satisfaction level for women with children was 2.39, while that for women without children was 2.99, for men with children, 2.66, and men without children, 2.57. The number of individuals in the categories of women with children and men with children grew between the two surveys because many men and women had had their first child between the five-year survey and 1986.Google Scholar

92 For the factor of having children, b=–0.64, S. E.=0.17. The other significantly related factors were, in order, law school grade point (higher grades, lower satisfaction, b=0.50, S. E. =0.24); whether she was a partner, manager, or supervisor at her current place of work (partners and managers more satisfied, b=0.33, S. E.=0.19); and whether she was currently in private practice (those in private practice less satisfied, b=0.28, S. E.=0.18). Taken together, these four variables explain 9% of the adjusted variance in career satisfaction.Google Scholar

93 At the time of the five-year survey, the childless women who later became mothers were already slightly (but not significantly) more satisfied with their careers than the women who did not become mothers by 1986. By 1986, 49% of the women who became mothers were at least one level more satisfied than they had reported themselves to be in the five-year survey; 26% were less satisfied. By comparison, only 32% of the women who remained childless were at least one level more satisfied, while 41% were less satisfied. Of the 36 new mothers, 8 were working patt time in 1986 and 4 had ceased working outside the home at all. These 12 mothers who did not have full-time jobs reported career satisfactions that were almost identical to the satisfactions of the full-time working mothers.Google Scholar

94 It is possible that the women who had children after the five-year survey were those who already felt more secure in their careers than they had at the time of the five-year survey and thus that in some sense the satisfaction “caused” the children and not the reverse.Google Scholar

95 See pp. 254–58 supra. Google Scholar

96 See p. 258 supra.Google Scholar

97 See Crosby, Deprivation (cited in note 25).Google Scholar

98 See supra note 70.Google Scholar

99 On the problem of the male traits and preferences setting the standards for judging conduct, see the writings of Catharine MacKinnon. See especially her essay on women as lawyers in Feminism Unmodified 70–77 (1987). In the Michigan survey, when asked in an open-ended question what was the most important way, if any, that being a woman had advantaged them in their careers, many women said it had not advantaged them at all. A larger number said that they had been advantaged by traits that they considered especially found in women, such as compassion. Even larger numbers, however, listed advantages that suggested accepting and capitalizing on the male-dominated nature of the bar. A large number of women regarded as the principal advantage of their gender that they had stood out from the men around them and been noticed, mostly by men. Others reported that their greatest advantage was that men did not know what to expect from them and were surprised, to the men's disadvantage, when they acted aggressively.Google Scholar

100 Nearly all report “some” discrimination; very few report “a lot.” Those who report some discrimination are as satisfied with their careers as those who report none.Google Scholar

101 Many more of the Michigan women report having begun law school with a desire to work in government, legal services, or some other “public interest” setting.Google Scholar

102 One woman, hearing our findings, suggested that the mothers who said they were satisfied had probably just taken their daily dose of valium.Google Scholar

103 In an ABA survey conducted in May 1983, attorneys were asked about “weaknesses” of women as attorneys. The most frequently perceived weakness was their familial responsibilities and familial conflicts. See Winter, “Women Lawyers Work Harder, Are Paid Less, But They're Happy,” 69 ABA J. 1384, 1387 (1983). In the Michigan survey, only a few women expressed a belief that they had experienced especially adverse treatment because of pregnancy or parenting, but we asked no direct question about such treatment. One woman said, “I have taken three medical leaves for pregnancy-related disabilities. For career purposes, it would have been less detrimental to have suffered three heart attacks.” One of the men in explaining why he thought fewer women worked in firms responded,” There is a practical, built-in bias in the smaller firms against women in that childbearing causes an interruption in work and smaller firms have a… great financial investment in any new addition.”Google Scholar

104 Some researchers of job satisfaction argue that many workers who might feel anger at their working conditions do not feel anger because they (often irrationally) accept blame for their circumstances. See Crosby, Deprivation, 7, 28, 63–66 (cited in note 25).Google Scholar

105 Like women in general, women with children have reported themselves experiencing discriminatory treatment at some points from other lawyers, judges, and clients, but women with children have experienced such treatment no more frequently than other women.Google Scholar

106 One mother, for example, thought that her family responsibilities were her greatest career advantage as a woman: “The family demands help you keep perspective on what is important.” See additional statements on p. 266 supra.Google Scholar

107 See supra pp. 263–65.Google Scholar

108 Conversely, men with children may be less prepared for the difficulties posed by the conflicting demands of family and children and may find the task of balancing more onerous than they had expected.Google Scholar

109 Our respondents from the classes of 1970–73 included 53 full-time working women and 903 full-time working men. Of this group, 49% of the women and 67% of the men were in private practice 15 years after graduation.Google Scholar

110 For the classes of 1970–79 after 15 years, 51% of women and 42% of men were quite satisfied with the balance of their family and professional lives and 67% of women and 62% of men were quite satisfied with their careers overall (categories 1 and 2 on the 7-point scale. Differences not significant). There were also no significant differences between the satisfaction levels of women with and women without children. Throughout the history of our surveys, the 15-year classes have reported higher levels of career satisfaction than the 5-year classes. Compare the results of the 5-year survey in table 5.Google Scholar

111 The full-time working women in these classes earned on average $77,600 as opposed to $124,100 for the men. Among those in private practice, the full-time working women averaged $91,700, the full-time working men $143,300. Women's and men's total family incomes were, however, closely similar–an average of $157,500 for all full-time women and $151,500 for all full-time men. Full-time working women with children earned no less on average than full-time working women without children. Thus, the lower average earnings of women are not due to especially truncated careers of the women with children.Google Scholar

112 None of the women in the classes of 1972 and 1973 took first jobs in large firms after law school. Many of the women in the classes of 1976–79 did so. A major change in the policies of the large firms with regard to the hiring of women seems to have occurred in the years between 1973 and 1976.Google Scholar

113 Five years after graduation, 22% of the women in the 1976–79 classes were working in law firms with more than 50 lawyers. For the classes of 1980 and 1981, the proportion had risen to 32% and for the classes of 1982 and 1983, to 39%. For men, across the same three time periods, the proportion working in large firms five years after graduation was 27% for the 1976–79 classes, 36% for the 1980–81 classes, and 44 percent for the 1982–83 classes. At least for first placements after law school, this is a pattern repeated by the recent graduates of many other schools.Google Scholar

114 In the 1976–79 classes five years after graduation, 44% of women and 70% of men worked in private firms. See table 1 supra. In the 1982–83 classes five years after graduation, 59% of women and 71% of men were in private practice.Google Scholar

115 See supra notes 71 and 81.Google Scholar

116 In the more recent classes, women and men in private practice (and particularly large firm private practice) remain substantially less satisfied with the balance of their family and professional lives than men and women working in other settings. Thus, as the proportion working in private practice increases, the average levels of satisfaction decrease. For example, the proportion of women who are dissatisfied (categories 5, 6, and 7) with the balance of their family and professional lives has increased from 18% of the women in the classes of 1976–79 up to 29% of the women in the classes of 1980–81 and up to 33% of the women in the classes of 1982–83. The decline in satisfaction has occurred for women with and women without children.Google Scholar

117 See p. 258 supra. Google Scholar

118 See note 50 supra. Google Scholar