Honors Theses
Date of Award
Spring 5-14-2023
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Public Policy Leadership
First Advisor
Kyle Fritz
Second Advisor
Melissa Bass
Third Advisor
Conor Dowling
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This thesis investigates the problem of gender disparities present within the legal profession in order to discover their causes and ways to mitigate them. Currently, there are a variety of gender disparities in the legal profession. Women are paid less than their male counterparts, are exposed to sexual harassment and violence more often, and receive fewer leadership opportunities, to name just a few of these disparities. While these disparities are documented in larger firms, little data exists on the extent of such issues in smaller firms, especially in the southeastern United States. Accordingly, I interviewed eight individuals with their juris doctorates in small firms in Clarksville, TN and Oxford, MS. My goal was to understand the extent of these disparities, as well as the causes behind them, in order to implement effective solutions. From these interviews, the causes were determined to be sexism through gender stereotypes, overt sexism, and covert sexism. Interviewers provided several solutions, but the recommendations that I provide are to implement raising awareness through law school classes and trainings, new hiring process policies, and policy incentives and consequences through a United States Justicia Project. Each of these solutions addresses a different cause of the reported gender disparities. Hopefully through their implementation, we will begin to see the mitigation of gender disparities among small law firms in the southeastern United States.
Recommended Citation
Sanders, Olivia M., "Gender Disparities Present Within the Legal Profession" (2023). Honors Theses. 2844.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2844
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.