Don't Count on Minority Female Attorneys to Stick Around?

If you’re a minority female, you’ll likely say ba-bye to your firm within five years, says a study from Catalyst, a non-profit focused on women and business issues.
The organization recently released a report titled, “Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms:”

According to Catalyst’s Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms, women of color face complex barriers compared to other groups that may significantly decrease job satisfaction and increase the intent to leave their current firm–factors that affect a firm’s bottom line. The study is the fourth and final in Catalyst’s Women of Color in Professional Services Series examining how the “intersectionality,” or combined identities of gender and race/ethnicity, puts women of color at a unique disadvantage in the workplace. Despite widespread existence of systems created to develop and advance women of color, research has shown that more than 75 percent of these women will leave their employer within five years, costing an amount potentially greater than each person’s total salary and benefits.

The organization surveyed 1,242 lawyers and conducted focus groups with women of color–including Asian women, black women, and Latinas– and then produced a 72-page report [pdf]. Here’s the short version from the Chicago Sun-Times:

75% bail within 5 years due to barriers.

Female lawyers of color being flaky is maybe not exactly the message that Catalyst wanted to send.
We skimmed the report, and must say it’s a bit dry. We’ve extracted the juicier bits — mainly the individual stories — after the jump.


The report has lots of statistics: “Although women of color represented nearly one-quarter of all women associates in 2008, only 1.84 percent were partners,” and “70% of respondents have white mentors,” and “Women of color were more likely to harbor intentions to leave their firms.”
Here are some personal anecdotes:

[To fit in] I guess you [just] have to appear more…for lack of a better word…more WASPish in a way. It’s weird because when you’re growing up, you hang out with people in high school, college, and throughout [who] are more like you. And then you come here and there are not as many minorities, so you have to make that adjustment as you start hanging out with…white people, and you…have to make that effort to appear more like the majority.
–Asian woman
I try to behave as American as I can. And I try to hide [my Latin heritage]…Not that I can hide [it], because every time I open my mouth, [it is obvious] who I am…Why do I need to change my personality? [I am] working 15 hours a day and on top of that I have to change my personality?
–Latina
[Regarding fit], I think a lot of it is your ability to be really comfortable with the team that you’re working with. [I think] we have to kind of break [the] ice and make things comfortable, because I think an old white male, stepping…into a room, and us sitting together…anything I say is going to be offensive. Even if it’s not.
–Black woman
The first week [at the firm], we do this training, and they parade all these big-time partners in front of you…[who] talk about how you should proceed as a first-year associate, and I remember having this feeling–thinking about all of these four men in front of me–[that] I don’t see myself in any of them, and I think from that day forward, whether that was conscious or unconscious, I sort of decided, I don’t really know that I want to be like those people…A lot of women of color perhaps decide that the senior leadership positions…are not for them.
–Black woman
Successful female partners [whom] I have seen…don’t take vacations. They don’t really
sleep. They’re always here. If they’re not here, they’re married to [their] Blackberry.
–Asian woman
I think a big difference is our commitment to our families, our extended families. I have
a colleague…a black female associate who pays for her nephew’s school, and a partner
[commented], “Why would you do that?” There is this lack of understanding of the
commitment to our families, which I think makes a difference. Christmas is something that I am not allowed to miss with my family, but if you have a deal…over the Christmas holiday, how do you explain that to a partner? Because in their mind they’re thinking, “Why would you want to go home?”
–Black woman

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We’d just like to say that the woman of no-color and the men of color at ATL are all required to spend Christmases with their families too. [Elie Note: Though I did not make a single Christmas with my non-in-state family during my years in Biglaw, and had an affinity for working on Boxing Day.]
An ABA study a few years back had more exciting anecdotes in its report, says the ABA Journal:

The ABA study included these anecdotes:
• Many minority women lawyers of the same ethnicity were often addressed with the same name.
• Several Latina attorneys said it was a given that they could speak Spanish and liked spicy food.
• Asian-American women reported stereotypes about being subservient or willing to work nonstop.
• African-American women reported stereotypes about affirmative action or having quick-to-flash personalities.

Aren’t all Biglaw lawyers required to be willing to work nonstop?
Female minority lawyers don’t stay at U.S. firms [Chicago Sun-Times]
Why More than 75% of Minority Female Lawyers Leave Law Firms Within 5 Years [ABA Journal]

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