[HOME] [BOOKS] [ORDERING] [JOURNALS] [ABSTRACTS] [LINKS] [SPECIAL OFFERS]

Mary Jane Mossman, "Lawyers and Family Life: New Directions for the 1990's", Feminist Legal Studies II/1 (1994), 61-82 (Part I) and II/2 (1994), 159-182 (Part II): Overall, this paper examines the relationship between work and family responsibilities for men and (increasingly large numbers of women who are lawyers. Part I begins by examining the demographic data regarding women in paid employment in contemporary Canadian society, including the dramatic changes in the numbers of women who have entered the legal profession in recent decades. The Part also examines three related and "hidden" issues in relation to the dilemma of work and family for members of the legal profession: current arrangements for legal work, especially in large private law firms; gender bias in current roles of women and men in our society; and the scope of "familial" responsibilities (including responsibilities for children and elderly persons in traditional and other family units ). Part II explores a number of solutions that have been attempted as a means of creating more balance between work and family responsibilities. The paper reviews experiences with alternative work arrangements, as well as the need for more structural change. The paper concludes that real solutions depend on serious consideration of the processes of change and the need to ensure that all lawyers (women and men) may be productive members of the legal profession without relinquishing familial responsibilities.
Author's address: Mary Jane Mossman, Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario, Canada M3J lP3, Telephone: (416) 736-5547, Fax: (416) 736-5736, E-mail: mmossman@yorku.ca

[HOME] [BOOKS] [ORDERING] [JOURNALS] [ABSTRACTS] [LINKS] [SPECIAL OFFERS]