Day 11: About my school or job

The secret to looking lawyerly when you're young:  glasses.

Today, I'm going to discuss something for which I was grateful in two of my former jobs:  I got to work in two non-profit law firms where the vast majority of attorneys were female.  There were so many things that were awesome about both of these workplaces that they could (and probably will) fill a whole volume of thankful posts, so today I'm going to focus on the mostly female workplace part.

First, I'm grateful for what there was not - nobody was trying to undermine or beat out anyone else.  While many of us were competitive by nature, we applied our competitive nature to our cases and our non-profit mission.  There wasn't any locker room talk or boy's club atmosphere.  There wasn't gossiping and backbiting. 

Second, I'm grateful for what there was:  Friendship.  Support, encouragement, and cooperation.  It was inspiring to be surrounded by these smart, driven women who were using their talents to better the world, and it gave me a model for what I wanted my career to look like.  Both offices took great pains to be flexible and family friendly.  People knew each other's kids and spouses, at least a little bit.  People made time to help each other with cases. 

There were males there, too, and they were great.  (I think it takes a certain sort of strength in a man to do well in a working environment led by women, so kudos to you men.)  But I'm grateful to have had the experience, twice, of being surrounded by co-workers who were smart, social justice oriented, kind, and mostly female.