Gabriele Plickert: "The Professional Careers of Young Lawyers in German and US Cities: Gender and Organization"

There is little cross-national empirical research on which to develop our understanding of organization of work in the legal profession. This study compares young German lawyers practicing in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin with young US lawyers practicing in New York and Washington DC, at similar career stages (after 10 years in practice). The conference will examine the effects of legal training and occupational structures on the professional careers of female and male lawyers in these German and US cities. Preliminary results show no gender differences in experiences of legal training and career goals. Similarly, no gender differences are found in the workplace and employment status. However, there are significant discrepancies between the position of young female and male lawyers in the occupational structure. Job-specific expectations result in more role conflict between work and private spheres for women than for men. Thus, although the professional qualifications of lawyers are very similar, gender-specific differences in the organization of work still have a considerable impact on the professional career paths of women in legal practice.Intervention et discussion en langue anglaise