Gender Differences in the Legal Profession

GASTIAZORO, MARÍA EUGENIA

Berlín

Conferencia; International Conference "Law and Society in the 21st Century: Transformations, Resistances, Futures?; 2007

Law and Society

In Argentina, there is a significant presence of women in the legal profession. In spite of the massive incorporation of women into the legal profession, significant gender differences still persist. Several different investigations have revealed constant, significant inequities as regards gender within the public sector, specially in the justice administration, and within the private practice. On the one hand, vertical segregation refers to women that are allowed less frequently into the highest job levels that have the characteristic of being the most powerful as regards decision making and income levels. On the other hand, horizontal segregation refers to women tending to focus only on job positions that are ?adequate? to their sex which, most of the times, are the less prestigious ones or the ones that have less economic interest. Our project considers gender differences within the legal profession to be a proven fact, and upholds the interpretations that men and women lawyers claim about these disparities regarding their professional area, as well as the factors that produce it.