I asked my 11 year old daughter, "What's your favourite subject in school?" Without hesitation, Nora responded "science and maths!" To me, as a patent attorney, a computer science/maths major, and a mother, that was a welcome response.
Her sixth-grade class, comprised of about equal numbers of girls and boys, was super keen on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and peppered me with questions during the "innovation nation" presentation for the junior achievement programme. One girl went home and excitedly told her parents that she wanted to be a patent attorney.
Why, then, do girls' interest in STEM wane by the time they reach college? Why are women underrepresented in STEM fields in education and in professions? And what can we do to improve?
Understanding the current landscape
Under-representation of women
Discouraging statistics abound, when reflecting the gender imbalance in STEM education and careers, including law:
- Women earn only 36% of STEM degrees, despite earning 58% of bachelor's degrees;1
- Women constitute about half of the US workforce, but only 26% of STEM professions;2 and
- Women represent only 12% of inventors of US patents.3
Despite efforts to improve, gender diversity in big law has flatlined.4 Women represented at least 40% of law students for the past 30 years and more than 50% of law students since 2016.5
Yet, they make up just under 35% of total lawyers at law firms and 19% of equity partners.6
Big Law has experienced a slow erosion in year-over-year retention of women lawyers.7
Under-compensation of women
Full-time women workers earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, resulting in a gender wage gap of nearly 20%.8 In IP law, men earn more than women among corporate attorneys, corporate heads of IP, associates, partners, and solo practitioners.9 The only exception, where men and women earn roughly the same, is of counsels.10
Examining the root causes
Social norms and unconscious bias perpetuate gender roles, starting early in educational settings and continue in professional settings.
When girls are asked to draw a mathematician or scientist, they are twice as likely to draw men instead of women.11 Girls believe certain fields require "brilliance" or "genius" for success, and by age six are more likely than boys to avoid undertakings that require being "really, really smart".12
Gender disparities clearly emerge at the undergraduate level. As of 2018, women held about 57% of bachelor's degrees awarded since the late 1990s and half of science and engineering degrees, but less than 20% of computer-science degrees.13
It follows that IP firms face additional hurdles in recruiting and retaining women attorneys. "Intellectual property firms continue to struggle with gender diversity due to a lack of women in the science and engineering fields and other deeply rooted problems... IP has long been regarded as a male-dominated field. There are sometimes built-in prejudices that need to be overcome – that women can't develop business, that women can't run the team in a major multimillion-dollar litigation... These are entrenched ideas among some people that can make it more difficult for women to advance."14
Compounding the challenge is that more female than male attorneys leave law firms due to family responsibilities and work-life balance.15 Of the attorneys who work part-time, 41% of women, but only 12% of men, cite family as the reason.16 Increasing levels of nonbillable expectations contribute to more women attorneys leaving firms. Only 10% of male attorneys, but 20% of female attorneys, have no book of business.17 Women lawyers also experience greater challenges in obtaining visible and important work opportunities that can help them advance.18 All these factors contribute to women lawyers comprising only 20-25% of firm leadership and management positions.19
Disrupting the gender imbalance
Despite the desire to curb the under-representation of women in STEM fields and capture the untapped talents of girls and women, there is no easy solution in sight. It will take awareness and intentionality to chip away at prevailing gender biases and stereotypes. It will take concerted efforts to provide nurturing and encouraging environments for girls to pursue STEM studies. And it will take initiatives and creativity to support and promote women in IP fields. Below are some examples of such efforts to disrupt the current gender imbalance in STEM.
Outreach early and often
Early and frequent exposure – and seeing female role models – can propel girls into STEM fields. An excellent example is the IP Patch for Girl Scouts programme. In 2018, Finnegan collaborated with The Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) Education Foundation and the IPO Women in IP Committee to host a half-day programme to expose girls to STEM and IP. Nearly a hundred girls (and some boys) from the Washington, DC area gathered on a Saturday morning for a series of hands-on activities and presentations on inventions, creative works and IP. The programme was so successful that planning is underway to repeat it this year as part of Bring Your Children to Work Day and expand it to include Cub Scouts and other grade-school students.
Continuing to promote STEM education in high school and college is essential. Since 2003, I have been teaching patent law and patent policy seminar as an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law.
A common regret law students express is, "I wish I had known about patent law when I was in college. I would have majored in science."
Targeted outreach to high school and undergraduate students about STEM, and careers in IP, will help fill the pipeline of future women and diverse attorneys.
Corporations as agents of change
Corporations can be effective agents of change to improve the legal profession's gender imbalance – and they have begun to fill that role regarding not just women attorneys but other diverse associates.
Last year, more than 170 general counsels signed an open letter calling on law firms to hire, retain, and promote diverse associates or risk losing their business.20 Sophisticated legal departments urge firms to improve not just overall diversity statistics, but verify that women and diverse attorneys are getting meaningful roles on projects.
In 2019, the Diversity Lab launched "Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition," requiring participating in-house legal teams to consider for key leadership positions at least 50% women, minority lawyers, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities. Participating legal departments are also asked to consider at least 50% diverse lawyers for outside counsel hires for new or expanded work. As of last October, over 20 legal departments had signed up. See Dan Clark, more than 20 legal departments sign on for in-house Mansfield Rule pilot Law.com (24 Oct 2019).
Promoting women at firms and at corporations through intentional corporate policies under the Mansfield Rule has raised the awareness about the need for – and the benefits of – diverse teams.
Strategic initiatives for firms
The Mansfield Rule has received wide attention since its launch in 2017. To be Mansfield-certified, law firms must consider at least 30% diverse lawyers (women, minorities, and LGBTQ+) for all governance and leadership roles, including lateral hires and equity partner promotions. The most recent iteration, Mansfield Rule 3.0, expands to include lawyers with disabilities.
And although the Mansfield Rule has only been in place a few years, having targets and clear accountability should promote greater gender balance. At a minimum, the rule has raised awareness among law firms of disappointing diversity marks. Over a hundred law firms have signed on to pilot Mansfield Rule 3.0. See Mansfield Rule: boosting diversity in leadership diversity lab (3 Sept 2019). Beyond the Mansfield Rule, there are other creative ways to support the advancement of women in law firms. One of the major hurdles that junior women attorneys face is the lack of committed mentors and sponsors to help them advance.
Finnegan is addressing this challenge by launching a sponsorship programme where a mid-level woman or diverse attorney is paired with a partner in firm leadership. The sponsor works with the associate on career planning, securing meaningful projects and networking opportunities, and providing career advocacy. While a formal sponsor programme is no substitute for organic relationships, it provides a safety net for those who might otherwise face difficulty independently establishing those relationships. When women attorneys are well supported, trained, and promoted, they have greater job satisfaction and attrition is lowered. Attrition is costly for both the departing attorney and the firm. The loss of an associate can cost a firm $200k to $500k.21 It makes good business sense to retain good talent.
The gender imbalance in STEM and IP paints a bleak picture. But increased awareness, concerted efforts, and creative initiatives – by schools, industry groups, corporations, and firms – can collectively move the needle towards greater representation of women.
My personal hope is that by the time Nora heads off to college, she will be met with a brighter future filled with more women teachers, role models, and professionals succeeding and leading in STEM fields.
Footnotes
1 See Nat'l Center for Educ Statistics, US
Dept of Educ Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and
Ethnic Groups, Indicator 26:
STEM Degrees (NCES 2019-038).
2 See Melissa Maleske, IP boutiques among worst firms for women LAW 360 (Kat Laskowski & Patricia K Cole eds, 20 Apr 2015).
3 See US Patent and Trademark Office, Report to
Congress: Study of underrepresented classes chasing engineering and
science
success (2 Oct 2019).
4 See Destiny Perry, 2019 Survey report on the
promotion and retention of women in law firms 3 (Nat'l
Ass'n of Women Lawyers
2019).
5 See Annie Pancak, Glass ceiling slow to break for female attys in 2018 2 LAW360 (2019).
6 See Comm'n on Women in the profession, a current glance at women in the law 2 (American Bar Ass'n 2018).
7 See Courtney Dredden et al, Retaining women in law firms Chambers Associate.
8 See Pay equity & discrimination Institute For Women's Policy Research.
9 See Women in IP Comm, The state of women in IP law 3–6 (AIPLA 2018).
10 See Id at 6.
11 See Jennifer Steele, Children's gender stereotypes about math: the role of stereotype stratification J Applied Social Psychology (2006).
12 See Perceptions about what it takes to succeed in STEM fields may keep women out Phycs.Org (11 Jan 2018).
13 See Nat'l Science Board, Science and engineering indicators 2-55–56 (NSF 2018).
14 See Bill Donahue, IP boutiques still among worst for female attorneys Law 360 1 (Mark Lebetkin & Kat Laskowski eds, 18 April 2016).
15 See Update on associate attrition: findings from a national study of law firm associate hiring and departures The Nalp Foundation 27 (2019).
16 See Women in IP Committee, supra, at 7.
17 See id at 8.
18 See id.
19 See Perry, supra, at 2.
20 See Christine Simmons, 170 GCs pen open letter to law firms: improve on diversity or lose our business Law.com (27 Jan 2019).
21 See Debra Cassens Weiss, Work quality is the No 1 reason associates leave, law firm survey says ABA J (7 July 2017).
Originally published by Intellectual Property Magazine
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