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Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives. by John Hagan; Fiona Kay Review by: Shelley A. Smith Social Forces, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Sep., 1996), pp. 385-386 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2580806 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 12:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.77.82 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 12:37:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives. by John Hagan; Fiona KayReview by: Shelley A. SmithSocial Forces, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Sep., 1996), pp. 385-386Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2580806 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 12:37

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Forces.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.82 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 12:37:31 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives.by John Hagan; Fiona Kay

Book Reviews / 385

age at marriage. The authors argue that in the other eight countries, education contributes to delayed entry into marriage not through women's human capital investments but because educational enrollment simply delays the transition to adulthood. Their results suggest modest support for Becker's hypothesis when entry into motherhood is considered. Again, educational enrollment contributes to increased age at motherhood by delaying the transition to adulthood. However, the level of education also contributes to postponement or avoidance of motherhood, even in countries with less traditional family systems. The authors emphasize the implications for family formation in industrial societies of this conflict between women's investments in human capital and persistent cultural expectations that women bear primary responsibility for children.

Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives. By John Hagan and Fiona Kay. Oxford University Press, 1995. 235 pp.

Reviewer: SHELLEY A. %=rm, University of South Carolina

Gender in Practice opens with a description of the historical and structural context of change in the Canadian legal profession. This departure point enables the authors to identify important areas of intersection between sociolegal shifts and organizational change in the practice of law. These prove critical for the subject at hand: understanding the relative position of male and femiale lawyers and how those positions have changed in recent years. The book targets Canadian lawyers, but also explores similarities to the U.S. where relevant.

The early pages also present a brief overview of the two theoretical explanations used - human capital and gender stratification - and a compelling account of structural change in law follows in chapter 2. While the overview of the theoretical explanations is not as fully explicated as it could have been, the treatment given the topics analyzed in the text consistently return to them. Hence by the final chapter, the explanations are clearer, as is their relevance to the topic. This is important because the text is accessible to undergraduate audiences who may not be familiar with the finer nuances of these arguments.

The account of organization and structure in the legal profession proved fascinating. As the practice of law has become increasingly the business of law, law firms, particularly large ones, have rationalized to preserve position, reputation, and economic integrity. This manifests in the centralization and concentration of human and cultural capital, which forms the foundation for explaining ceiling effects on legal careers. The vulnerability of cultural capital promotes pyramidal hierarchies where cultural capital is concentrated among partners at the top, and high associate/partner ratios produce a broad base and assure profitability. This pyramid is maintained by adding associates to the base or attrition, depending on the state of the larger economy. An empirical examination of this structure shows the legal profession to be extensively stratified. Many lawyers have little autonomy and authority, and occupy subordinate positions.

The two theoretical explanations are tied to analyses of career advancement, earnings, and job satisfaction. The first of these will be particularly interesting for those unfamiliar with legal careers. Career advancement entails the phases of preparation, training, and practice. Hagan and Kay show that the relative success

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Page 3: Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives.by John Hagan; Fiona Kay

386 / Social Forces 75:1, September 1996

of men and women varies by stage. They further demonstrate how human capital and gender stratification explanations: (1) are variably applicable, depending on career stage, and (2) enable the identification of gender differences in advancement potential at any given stage. Their examination shows that universalistic criteria appear more a part of the selection process at early stages, thus supporting a human capital perspective. Advancement at later stages - notably the transition from associate to partner - exhibits distinct gender differentiation. In short, more men become partners than women. While several important factors are at work here, the analyses and qualitative material pointedly show the disadvantage faced by women with children. Chapter 5 explores this in depth, illustrating the subtle, informal, and sometimes insidious hurdles encountered by women considering or having children. The authors analyze quantitative data from several surveys, including longitudinal. This is supplemented with data from 50 in-depth interviews, which usefully contextualize the quantitative analyses. The strategy is particularly successful in the discussions of career-family conflict and job satisfaction. The data descriptions make the volume accessible to lay and undergraduate audiences, as does the relegation to the appendix of technical details of the analyses. Nonetheless, the book will appeal to scholars of stratifica- tion and the professions, as well as, of course, lawyers. It is an exemplary case of the detailed occupational study.

The Middleground: The American Public and the Abortion Debate. By Bhavani Sitaraman. Garland Publishing, 1994. 239 pp. Cloth, $51.00.

Reviewer: DALIAS A. BLANCHARD, University of West Florida

In this work Sitaraman seeks to extend the many previous research studies on public attitudes toward abortion, which have been based primarily on the NORC's General Social Surveys. He rightly maintains that actual abortion decisions are usually far more complex than suggested by the six- to eight-item scales used in such surveys. Thus, after conducting a telephone interview comparable to the NORC schedule using a sample of 500 Greenfield, Massachusetts, adults, he mailed a follow-up questionnaire composed of 20 vignettes describing the more complex life situations of women potentially seeking abortions. The women described were given eight possible ages (15 to 45); different marital statuses; a range of zero to six children; five different weekly incomes; a happy or unhappy relationship with her partner; excellent, average, or very poor health; two to six months of gestation; a range of 10 reasons for seeking an abortion, from rape to a desire to remain childless; and various levels of support for abortion from her partner and her parents. A total of 217 respondents yielded a usable pool of 4,315 vignette responses, which were the primary unit of analysis.

Additional background information on respondents included the variables usually related to abortion attitudes: religion, church attendance, sex, age, number of children, marital status, personal or acquaintance's abortion experience, education, and family income. Regrettably, the sample size permitted only a distinction between being Catholic and non-Catholic, since increasingly the primary religious distinction is no longer between denominations but between liberals and conservatives across virtually all denominations.

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