Female participation in employment, particularly in male-dominated elite occupations and professions, is often influenced by structures, ideologies, and recruitment patterns which effectively discriminate against women. The English legal profession is male dominated and sex-typed as “male”; less than 1 lawyer in 10 is a woman. Interviews with 76 women lawyers are used to examine the experience of inequality both at the point of entry and in professional practice. It is concluded that although dramatic and overt discrimination was not a typical experience, many women lawyers had had difficulties on account of their gender and found their careers and choices shaped and fashioned in particular ways.
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