ABSTRACT
Despite growing interest in the relationship between work conditions and professional advancement in the legal profession, little is known about how experiences of workplace discrimination shape full-time and part-time work schedules over the life course. Research shows that employers’ perceptions of women and men in the workplace are driven by stereotypes regarding gender and parental status. This study investigates how employment schedules of lawyers are a function of workplace discrimination and how this relationship varies for women and men over their careers. Using a life course perspective, this chapter examines workplace discrimination linked to employment schedules among a nationally representative sample of 2,035 working women and men lawyers surveyed between 2002 and 2013. Findings indicate that workplace discrimination is salient to employment trajectories, with pronounced effects on work schedules for women during the early to middle years of career development. Discrimination based on family responsibilities is particularly relevant to women’s employment trajectories. In contrast, other forms of workplace discrimination (e.g. gender) may ebb and flow across the life course, but seem to have less direct effects on employment schedules. The observed processes emphasise the importance of improving workplace conditions to ensure equity in the legal profession.
