Explanations of gender inequality typically emphasize individual characteristics, the structure of internal labor markets, or pressures from the institutional environment. Extending the structuralist and institutional perspectives, this article argues that the demographic composition of an organization's exchange partners can influence the demographic composition of the focal organization when the focal organization is dependent upon its partners. Specifically, law firms with women-led corporate clients increase the number of partners who are women attorneys. Data on elite law firms and their publicly traded clients support a bargaining power hypothesis whereby law firms promote women attorneys when their corporate clients have women in three key leadership positions: general (legal) counsel, chief executive officer, and board director. These effects are stronger when the law firm has few clients, reinforcing the hypothesis that interorganizational influence is more vital when a focal organization is dependent on its exchange partner. The results also support a related explanation based on homophily theory. The analysis rules out several alternative explanations and establishes a relationship between the presence of women-led clients and the promotion of women attorneys in law firms.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbelRichard L.1989. American Lawyers.New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
BakerWayne E.FaulknerRobert R.FisherGene A.1998. “Hazards of the Market: The Continuity and Dissolution of Interorganizational Market Relationships.”American Sociological Review63: 147–77.
3.
BaronJames N.BielbyWilliam T.1980. “Bringing the Firms Back In: Stratification, Segmentation, and the Organization of Work.”American Sociological Review45: 737–65.
4.
BaronJames N.MittmanBrian S.NewmanAndrew E.1991. “Targets of Opportunity: Organizational and Environmental Determinants of Gender Integration Within the California Civil Service, 1979-1985.”American Journal of Sociology96: 1362–401.
5.
BaronJames N.NewmanAndrew E.1989. “Pay the Man: Effects of Demographic Composition on Prescribed Wage Rates in the California Civil Service.” Pp. 125–26 in Pay Equity: Empirical Inquiries, vol. 107, edited by MichaelR. T.. Washington DC: National Academy Press.
6.
BielbyDenise D.1982. “Commitment to Work and Family.”Annual Review of Sociology18: 281–302.
7.
Blair-LoyMary1999. “Career Patterns of Executive Women in Finance: An Optimal Matching Analysis.”American Journal of Sociology104: 1346–97.
8.
BridgesWilliam P.NelsonRobert R.1989. “Markets in Hierarchies: Organizational and Market Influences on Gender Inequality in a State Pay System.”American Journal of Sociology95: 616–58.
9.
BroschakJoseph2005. “Will They Miss You When You're Gone? The Effect of Managers' Career Mobility on the Dissolution of Market Ties.”Administrative Science Quarterly.49: 608–40.
10.
BudigMichelle J.EnglandPaula2001. “The Wage Penalty for Motherhood.”American Sociological Review66: 204–25.
11.
ByrneD.CloreGerald L.JrWorchelP.1966. “The Effect of Economic Similarity-Dissimilarity on Interpersonal Attraction.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology4: 220–24.
12.
ChamblissElizabeth1997. “Organizational Determinants of Law Firm Integration.”American University Law Review46: 669–744.
13.
ChaseIvan D.1991. “Vacancy Chains.”Annual Review of Sociology17: 133–54.
14.
CohenLisa E.BroschakJoseph P.HavemanHeather A.1998. “And Then There Were More? The Effect of Organizational Sex Composition on the Hiring and Promotion of Managers.”American Sociological Review63: 711–27.
15.
DailyCatherine M.Trevis CertoS.DaltonDan R.1999. “A Decade of Corporate Women: Some Progress in the Boardroom, None in the Executive Suite.”Strategic Management Journal20: 93–99.
16.
DavisGerald F.GreveHenrich R.1997. “Corporate Elite Networks and Governance Changes in the 1980s.”American Journal of Sociology103: 1–37.
17.
DickDonna2001. “International Paper's Diversity Trail.”Diversity and the Bar. Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), December. Retrieved July 2003 (http://www.mcca.com/site/data/corporate/BP/ip1201.htm).
18.
DiMaggioPaul J.PowellWalter W.1983. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.”American Sociological Review48: 147–60.
DunneTimothyRobertsMark J.SamuelsonLarry1989. “The Growth and Failure of U.S. Manufacturing Plants.”The Quarterly Journal of Economics104: 671–98.
21.
EdelmanL. B.1992. “Legal Ambiguity and Symbolic Structures: Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights Law.”American Journal of Sociology97: 1531–76.
22.
ElyRobin J.1995. “The Effects of Organizational Demographics and Social Identity on Relationships among Professional Women.”Administrative Science Quarterly39: 203–38.
23.
ElyRobin J.ThomasDavid A.2001. “Cultural Diversity at Work: The Effects of Diversity Perspectives on Work Group Processes and Outcomes.”Administrative Science Quarterly46: 229–73.
24.
EnglandPaula1982. “The Failure of Human Capital Theory to Explain Occupational Sex Segregation.”Journal of Human Resources17: 358–70.
25.
EpsteinCynthia F. [1981]1993. Women in Law.2nd ed.Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
26.
FergusonHope E.2001. “Diversity Efforts Provide Competitive Edge to Philip Morris Companies Inc.”Diversity and the Bar. Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), December. Retrieved July 2003 (http://www.mcca.com/site/data/corporate/BP/ip1201.htm).
27.
GalanterMarcPalayThomas1991. Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm.Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
28.
GalaskiewiczJoseph1985. “Interorganizational Relations.”Annual Review of Sociology11: 281–304.
29.
GieselGrace M.1993. “The Business Client Is a Woman: The Effect of Women as In-House Counsel on Women in Law Firms and the Legal Profession.”Nebraska Law Review72: 760–802.
30.
GuthrieDougRothLouise M.1999. “The State, Courts, and Equal Opportunities for Female CEOs in U.S. Organizations: Specifying Institutional Mechanisms.”Social Forces78: 511–42.
31.
HallidayTerence C.1986. “Six Score Years and Ten: Demographic Transitions in the American Legal Profession.”Law and Society Review20: 53–78.
32.
HillmanAmy J.CannellaAlbert A.JrHarrisIra C.2002. “Women and Racial Minorities in the Boardroom: How Do Directors Differ?”Journal of Management28: 747–63.
33.
HullKathleen E.NelsonRobert L.2000. “Assimilation, Choice or Constraint? Testing Theories of Gender Differences in the Careers of Lawyers.”Social Forces79: 229–64.
34.
IbarraHerminia1992. “Homophily and Differential Returns: Sex Differences in Network Structure and Access in an Advertising Firm.”Administrative Science Quarterly37: 422–47.
35.
JacobsJerry A.1989. “Long-Term Trends in Occupational Segregation by Sex.”American Journal of Sociology95: 160–73.
36.
JavetskiBill1997. “Et Cetera…”Business Week, October 13 p. 44.
37.
JudgeWilliam Q.JrZeithamlCarl P.1992. “Institutional and Strategic Choice Perspectives on Board Involvement in the Strategic Decision Process.”Academy of Management Journal35: 766–94.
38.
KanterRosabeth Moss1977. Men and Women of the Corporation.New York: Basic Books.
39.
KayFiona M.HaganJohn1995. “The Persistent Glass Ceiling: Gendered Inequalities in the Earnings of Lawyers.”The British Journal of Sociology46: 279–310.
40.
KayFiona M.1998. “Raising the Bar: The Gender Stratification of Law-Firm Capitalization.”American Sociological Review63: 728–43.
41.
KerckhoffAlan C.1995. “Institutional Arrangements and Stratification Processes in Industrial Societies.”Annual Review of Sociology21: 323–47.
42.
KLD.1998. Kinder, Lydenberg, and Domini Social Performance Database. Boston, MA: KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.
LucasJeffrey W.2003. “Status Processes and the Institutionalization of Women as Leaders.”American Sociological Review68: 464–80.
45.
MattarEdward P.BallMichael1985. Handbook for Corporate Directors.New York: McGraw-Hill.
46.
McPhersonJ. MillerSmith-LovinLynnCookJames M.2001. “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.”Annual Review of Sociology27: 415–44.
47.
Minority Corporate Counsel Association.1999. Retrieved July 2003 (http://www.mcca.com/).
48.
MizruchiMark S.FeinLisa C.1999. “The Social Construction of Organizational Knowledge: A Study of the Uses of Coercive, Mimetic, and Normative Isomorphism.”Administrative Science Quarterly44: 653–83.
49.
MizruchiMark S.StearnsLinda B.2001. “Getting Deals Done: The Use of Social Networks in Bank Decision-Making.”American Sociological Review66: 647–71.
50.
NelsonRobert L.1988. Partners with Power: The Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
51.
OlsenCraigBeckerBrian E.1983. “Sex Discrimination in the Promotion Process.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review36: 624–41.
52.
Partner's Report2004. “New Data Suggest Partners Must Work Harder to Mend Weak Client Relationships” 4:1 (http://www.ioma.com/pub/PRLAW/2004_02/587659-1.html).
53.
PassanteLisa M.BenderGretchen A.PomerantzSuzi1999. “Creating the DuPont Women Lawyers'Network.” Pp. 12–13 in Diversity and the Bar, Minority Corporate Counsel Association. August.
54.
PetersenTrondSaportaIshak2004. “The Opportunity Structure for Discrimination.”American Journal of Sociology109: 852–901.
55.
PfefferJeffreySalancikGerald1978. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective.New York: Harper and Row.
56.
RaoHayagreevaSivakumarKumar1999. “Institutional Sources of Boundary-Spanning Structures: The Establishment of Investor Relations Departments in the Fortune 500 Industrials.”Organization Science10: 27–42.
57.
ReskinBarbara1993. “Sex Segregation in the Workplace.”Annual Review of Sociology19: 241–70.
58.
RhodeDeborah1988. “PROJECT: Gender, Legal Education, and the Legal Profession: An Empirical Study of Stanford Law Students and Graduates.”Stanford Law Review40: 1209.
59.
RosenbaumJames E.1984. Career Mobility in a Corporate Hierarchy.Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
60.
SeabrightMark A.LevinthalDaniel A.FichmanMark1992. “Role of Individual Attachments in the Dissolution of Interorganizational Relationships.”Academy of Management Journal35: 122–60.
61.
Securities Exchange Commission1934. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Retrieved July 2004 (http://www.sec.gov/).
62.
SmigelErwin O.1969. The Wall Street Lawyer: Professional Organization Man?Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
63.
SpurrStephen J.1990. “Sex Discrimination in the Legal Profession: A Study of Promotion.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review43: 406–17.
64.
StewmanShelby1986. “Demographic Models of Internal Labor Markets.”Administrative Science Quarterly31: 212–47.
65.
WholeyDouglas R.1985. “Determinants of Firm Internal Labor Markets and Large Law Firms.”Administrative Science Quarterly30: 318–35.
