Creating Momentum for Change

Sponsored with the Women's Bar Association and Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys

Date: Friday, May 19, 2000

Location: Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., Boston, MA
Time: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

This is a call to action. A call to come together and formulate plans to address the various ways that our governmental and social policies foster the conflict between working and caring for families. Why is the U.S. behind most of the industrialized nations in its policies and laws concerning families? Why haven't school schedules adjusted to the reality that most parents are not home at 3:30 p.m and work all summer? Why does the tax code limit the availability of tax relief for child-care expenditures for employment-related purposes? Why can't law firms adjust their organizational systems to allow for career advancement and meaningful participation in the family?

Women & Work: Creating Momentum for Change provides an academic analysis of current law and policies as they relate to working women. We start with a comprehensive look at how the tax code impacts child-care; the race and class inequities that have divided women workers; the recent rulings regarding custody of children against working women; and the specific case of women in the legal profession. Commentary from a panel of practitioners gives a practical perspective to the theoretical discussion. After reflecting on where we are, the focus shifts to how we can create strategies to change the current system. As members of the bar, we are in a unique position to impact laws, cases and social policies, which could benefit all women. This is a forum not only for identification of the problems, but for crafting tangible solutions.

Much work is going into opening doors and removing glass ceilings for women. Those victories ring hollow if having a career means sacrificing family. It is incumbent upon us to work for change. As Lily Tomlin said, "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."

Looking specifically at the case of women in the legal profession, Nancy Dowd believes that "The existing model of large firm practice means that lawyers who are mothers will face the choice of incomplete parenting or incomplete lawyering." Her conclusions echo the findings of the Boston Bar study, Facing the Grail: Confronting the Cost of Work-Family Imbalance, which predicts a collision course between law firms and the need for lawyers to participate in their families' daily lives.