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[rita_ZZ]

Is it because of prejudice?

[khazzah]

Gee, that's a loaded question.

What's the basis for your assumption that it *is* easier? The simple fact that law firms have more male partners than female partners? [Let's assume that's true.]

Also, I dunno about the phrasing "easier". That suggests, what, that for women that do make partner, they had a harder time than their male counterparts?

Are you really asking "what are the reasons that law firm partnerships have more men than women"?

[mhsharma]

Yes.  And networks, biology, and competence developed by prejudice, networks, and biology. 

[emanresu]

What evidence do you have that it is easier?

I would guess that if you look at the pool of associates hired to a particular firm in a given year, and then follow that through to 8 years later at the same firm, you would find that women and minorities are actually more likely to be made partner than white males.   Most firms are very into the politically correct idea of artificially manufactured "diversity."

Also, keep in mind that many firms actually have concrete, objective, quantitative requirements for making partner, including billable hours and how much business you bring to the firm.  If an individual doesn't make partner at these firms, it is usually because they are an underperformer. 

We all know that looking at the websites of private law firms would indicate that there are vastly more white male partners than any other demographic.  This is a function of many variables, including the demographic makeup of law school graduating classes over the last 40 years, the demographic makeup of the pool which enters the private for-profit law firms as opposed to government work or the like, the empirically verified fact that students admitted to law schools under "diversity" initiatives rather than merit are drastically more likely to be unable to pass the bar exam, and the number of women who voluntarily decide not to resume practice after child birth.

[bleedingpen]

What evidence do you have that it is easier?

I would guess that if you look at the pool of associates hired to a particular firm in a given year, and then follow that through to 8 years later at the same firm, you would find that women and minorities are actually more likely to be made partner than white males.   Most firms are very into the politically correct idea of artificially manufactured "diversity."

Also, keep in mind that many firms actually have concrete, objective, quantitative requirements for making partner, including billable hours and how much business you bring to the firm.  If an individual doesn't make partner at these firms, it is usually because they are an underperformer. 

We all know that looking at the websites of private law firms would indicate that there are vastly more white male partners than any other demographic.  This is a function of many variables, including the demographic makeup of law school graduating classes over the last 40 years, the demographic makeup of the pool which enters the private for-profit law firms as opposed to government work or the like, the empirically verified fact that students admitted to law schools under "diversity" initiatives rather than merit are drastically more likely to be unable to pass the bar exam, and the number of women who voluntarily decide not to resume practice after child birth.

Just think in 40 years, a similar thread title may read "Why is it so much easier for women to make partner than men?"

[emanresu]

Yet I doubt there will be a "diversity" initiative to boost recruit white males.

[MYK]

and the number of women who voluntarily decide not to resume practice after child birth.

Several of my family are medical doctors;  in an extended rant about Obamacare, one of them remarked in an aside that part of why there is such a shortage of physicians in the U.S. is that about half of the women who take up spots in medical school end up dropping out of practice within the first ten years, because they have babies and decide to stay at home.

[Wiscagent]

about half of the women who take up spots in medical school end up dropping out of practice within the first ten years, because they have babies and decide to stay at home.

It would be interesting to know (based on data from some well-run studies) what fraction of graduates of law and medical schools still practice those professions 5, 10, 15, 20 years after graduation, and to see if there is a substantial difference in the data for men compared to women.

[Robert K S]

If debt is a significant motivator as compared to the other factors, we will see quite a lot fewer professionals dropping out of their professions.  I don't think the cost of education has ever been quite as expensive in relation to mean income.

[MYK]

If debt is a significant motivator as compared to the other factors, we will see quite a lot fewer professionals dropping out of their professions.  I don't think the cost of education has ever been quite as expensive in relation to mean income.

The education industry is going to have to come crashing down some time soon.  I think most of my classmates are graduating with mortgage-sized debt loads on their backs.

[senofhans]

In my experience, after a few years into their career a not insignificant number of the promising women start families and take leave time (with good reason).  Despite the lip service given by the firm that this will not count against them, it does.  This makes becoming a partner more difficult.