Parenthood differs between male and female lawyers because of the sheer fact that women’s bodies are the ones having the child. They need time off for maternity where as males do not necessarily need this. Also it is a societal idea that a female needs to raise a baby and that a man may not need time off from work to do this.
Traditional values of motherhood have a great impact on women lawyers and the choices they make. These values may be that the women should stay in the home and raise the child personally and that they cannot return to work until the child has entered school-age. Often this even suggests that they must still only work part-time so that they may be there for their child when they are out of school. This affects women greatly, but for the majority of it, they are affected with guilt. Women no longer are subject to traditional values, nor can they often afford to not work for long periods of time. Traditional values are no longer relevant, but are still, unfairly, applied.
High powered female lawyers with children are viewed as suspect parents because of their time constraints. Society would prefer for women to be the complete care of their children to insure that they are brought up to its standards of “correct”. I think it is hard for society to conceptualize how a female lawyer could possibly have enough time to raise children. This is a ridicules notion because many women may achieve high-powered jobs without having to take away from their children’s upbringing and it completely disregards the fact many fathers can do a perfectly good job of childrearing in the mothers place. I also believe that instead of be suspect parents, they should be recognized for their hard work and achievement. It would be very difficult to achieve the raising of a child as well as a high-powered position as a lawyer, and they should be commended with the highest respect for their ability to do both.
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