Women Lawyers

January 3, 1994
Drawing on interviews with more than 100 female lawyers, most of them graduates of Harvard Law School, attorney Harrington (coauthor of Women of Academe ) presents an absorbing mosaic of the issues impeding advancement of her subjects. Women lawyers, she argues plausibly, ``are on dangerous ground,'' connected to both the male establishment and the majority of women, yet anchored by neither. She describes the professional, legal and social strictures that hamper women at corporate law firms. Her account of the tensions at law schools is interesting but brief, as is her survey of media representation of lawyers. More trenchant are her expositions of father/ daughter roles as they affect a woman lawyer, women's style of dress and the stresses of the competitive litigation ethos. She finds some progress on the periphery--women creating more collegial firms, or publicizing the pressures of law school on their personal lives. A few of her topics deserve further analysis, but Harrington provides much food for thought. Author tour.

January 1, 1994
The old order of the sexes is breaking apart, but the new is not yet in place. The law is at the center of this reorganization, and women lawyers are powerful agents in it, whether they intend to be or not. Harrington, a lawyer and former professor of political science, interviewed over 100 attorneys, all graduates of Harvard Law School, and elicited information on their personal and professional lives. At issue are two questions: What stands in the way of equal opportunity for women lawyers, and how are women lawyers using the authority they have to advance the equality of women. The book is richly illustrated with examples and anecdotes, and the style is warm, intelligent, and personable. Highly recommended for women's studies and legal collections.-- Elizabeth Fielder Olson, Archer & Greiner Lib., Haddonfield, N.J.