Everyone Needs A Wife
Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 4:39PM
Carolyn Elefant shares an article indicating that "breadwinner" men (men with families/kids) are among the more hours-intensive members of the legal profession. Behind, by the way, childless women, who lead the pack in hours. (As Carolyn aptly points out, more hours doesn't necessarily equal most productive, and might mean just the opposite.) This is all consistent with something Professor Joan Williams at Hastings told me recently: "78% of male partners are married to women who earn no more than 25% of the family income. That really highlights the fact that this all-or-nothing pattern of be a go-getter makes law firm partnership seem available not only not to most women, but also to men with a specific family model."
Along these lines, one of my best friends, who unaccountably manages an SF PR firm AND is supermom to 4 kids, gave me Peeing in Peace for my birthday. A funny book but it depresses the hell out of me, highlighting as it does the way working moms must constantly adapt to their situation, rather than, just about ever, vice versa.