Time to Put Assumptions in the Past
We all develop unconscious biases from early childhood on, as we take in information about gender, ethnicity, disability and sexuality, for example, and formulate it into expectations and beliefs that are deeply held and unexplored.
Research from the American Bar Association reveals that women lawyers of color report having been mistaken for administrative staff, court personnel, or janitorial staff at a level 50 percentage points higher than their white male counterparts.
And, over 50% of white women, according to a Forbes-reported study, have also experienced this type of bias, while only 7% of white male lawyers were mistaken for non-lawyers.
One female lawyer reported that she had not only frequently been assumed to be a court reporter, but in her own firm, had been asked on multiple occasions if she was a legal administrative assistant, even after she made partner.
This makes the day-to-day challenges of practicing law even more – and more needlessly – challenging.