Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T20:52:20.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stratification in the Legal Profession: Sex, Sector, and Salary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Jo Dixon  and
Carroll Seron
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is a long-standing debate over the role of human and social capital in explaining the gender gap in the earnings of professionals. Expanding on current research on sex differences in the incomes of male and female lawyers, we show how the process of earnings determination varies by sex and organizational sectors differing in sex composition and bureaucratization of decision making. Using data from a random sample of lawyers, we demonstrate that the effects of human and social capital on income vary among males and among females practicing law in private, corporate and government organizational sectors of the legal profession. We also show that there are sex differences in the effects of human and social capital on income within these sectors. Together, these findings suggest that stratification processes in the legal profession are based on both sex and organizational segmentation.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , 1995 , pp. 381 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article is co-authored and the names are presented in alphabetical order. We are grateful to Nancy Cauthen, Paula England, Eliot Freidson, David Greenberg, Christine Harrington, Lewis Kornhauser, Richard Peterson, Robert Jackson, Jordana Pestrong, Brian Powell, Yvonne Zylan, members of the Institute for Law and Society at New York University, members of the Gender and Inequality Workshop at New York University, and several anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. We also wish to thank Jean Kovath for her valuable research assistance and Bette Sikes for her excellent editing. The research reported here was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (#SSE-89–10544).

References

Abel, Richard L. (1989) American Lawyers. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Adam, Barry D., & Baer, Douglas E. (1984) “The Social Mobility of Women and Men in the Ontario Legal Profession,” 21 Canadian Rev. of Sociology & Anthropology 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agresti, A. (1989) Categorical Data Analysis. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Althauser, Robert, & Kalleberg, Arne (1981) “Firms, Occupations and the Structure of Labor Markets: A Conceptual Analysis,” in Berg 1981.Google Scholar
Arthurs, H. W., Willms, J., & Taman, L.. (1971) “The Toronto Legal Profession: An Exploratory Survey,” 21 Univ. of Toronto Law J. 498.Google Scholar
Auerbach, Jerold S. (1976) Unequal Justice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Baron, James N., & Bielby, William T. (1980) “Bringing the Firm Back In: Stratification, Segmentation and the Organization of Work,” 45 American Sociological Rev. 737.Google Scholar
Baron, James N., & Bielby, William T. (1984) “The Organization of Work in a Segmented Economy,” 49 American Sociological Rev. 454.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. (1981) A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. (1985) “Human Capital, Effort and the Sexual Division of Labor,” 3 J. of Labor Economics. S33 (Supp. Jan.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berg, Ivar, ed. (1981) Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Berk, Sarah Fenstermaker (1985) The Gender Factory: The Apportionment in American Households. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bibb, Robert, & Form, William H. (1977) “The Effects of Industrial, Occupational, and Sex Stratification on Wages in Blue-Collar Markets,” 55 Social Forces 974.Google Scholar
Bielby, Denise D., & Bielby, William T. (1984) “Work Commitment, Sex-Role Attitudes, and Women's Employment,” 49 American Sociological Rev. 234.Google Scholar
Bielby, Denise D., & Bielby, William T. (1988) “She Works Hard for the Money: Household Responsibilities and the Allocation of Work Effort,” 93 American J. of Sociology 1031.Google Scholar
Blau, Francine D. (1984) “Occupational Segregation and Labor Market Discrimination,” in Reskin 1984.Google Scholar
Blau, Peter M., & Duncan, Otis Dudley (1967) The American Occupational Structure. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Blau, Peter M., & Meyer, Marshall W. (1971) Bureaucracy in Modern Society. 2d ed. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Bose, Christine E. (1985) Jobs and Gender: A Study of Occupational Prestige. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Carlin, Jerome (1962) Lawyers on Their Own. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Yinon, & Pfeffer, Jeffrey (1984) “Employment Practices in the Dual Economy,” 23 Industrial Relations 58.Google Scholar
Colorado Bar Association (1967) “Report of the 1967 Economic Survey of the Colorado Bar.” Denver: Colorado Bar Association.Google Scholar
Corcoran, Mary, Duncan, Greg J., & Ponza, Michael (1984) “Work Experience, Job Segregation and Wages,” in Reskin 1984.Google Scholar
Coverman, Shelley (1983) “Gender, Domestic Labor Time, and Wage Inequality,” 48 American Sociological Rev. 623.Google Scholar
Curran, Barbara A., & Carson, Clara N. (1991) Supplement to the Lawyer Statistics Report: The U.S. Legal Profession in 1988. Chicago: American Bar Foundation.Google Scholar
Desai, Sonalde, & Waite, Linda J. (1991) “Women's Employment during Pregnancy and after the First Birth: Occupational Characteristics and Work Commitment,” 56 American Sociological Rev. 551.Google Scholar
Erlanger, Howard S. (1980) “The Allocation of Status within Occupations: The Case of the Legal Profession,” 58 Social Forces 882.Google Scholar
England, Paula, & Farkas, George (1986) Households, Employment and Gender: A Social, Economic and Demographic View. New York: Aldine Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs (1993) Women in Law. 2d ed. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Felmlee, Diane H. (1982) “Women's Job Mobility Processes within and between Employers,” 47 American Sociological Rev. 142.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc, & Palay, Thomas M. (1991) Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Garrison, Lloyd K. (1935) “A Survey of the Wisconsin Bar,” 10 Wisconsin Law Rev. 131.Google Scholar
Glancy, Dorothy J. (1970) “Women in Law: The Dependable Ones,” 21 (5) Harvard Law School Bull. 23.Google Scholar
Glass, Jennifer, & Camarigg, Valarie (1992) “Gender, Parenthood and Job-Family Compatibility,” 98 American J. of Sociology 131.Google Scholar
Hagan, John (1990) “The Gender Stratification of Income Inequality among Lawyers,” 68 Social Forces 835.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, & Kay, Fiona (1995) Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, Zatz, Marjorie, Arnold, Bruce, & Kay, Fiona (1991) “Cultural Capital, Gender, and the Structural Transformation of Legal Practice,” 25 Law & Society Rev. 239.Google Scholar
Halaby, Charles N. (1979) “Sexual Inequality in the Workplace: An Employer-specific Analysis of Pay Differences,” 8 Social Science Research 79.Google Scholar
Harrington, Christine, & Rifkin, Janet (1989) “The Gender Organization of Mediation: Implications for the Feminization of Legal Practice.” Institute for Legal Studies Working Paper Series 4. Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Heidi J. (1981) “The Family as the Locus of Gender, Class, and Political Struggle: The Example of Housework,” 6 Signs 365.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., & Laumann, Edward O. (1982) Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie R. (1989) The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Hodson, Randy, & Kaufman, Robert L. (1982) “Economic Dualism: A Critical Review,” 47 American Sociological Rev. 727.Google Scholar
Hudis, Paula M. (1976) “Commitment to Work and to Family: Marital Status Differences in Women's Earnings,” 38 J. of Marriage & the Family 267.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Jerry A. (1989) Revolving Doors: Sex Segregation in Women's Careers. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Robert L., & Daymont, Thomas N. (1981) “Racial Discrimination and the Social Organization of Industries,” 10 Social Science Research 225.Google Scholar
Koenig, Thomas, & Rustad, Michael (1985) “The Challenge to Hierarchy in Legal Education: Suffolk and the Night Law School Movement,” 7 Research in Law, Deviance & Social Control 189.Google Scholar
Malkiel, Burton G., & Malkiel, Judith A. (1973) “Male-Female Pay Differentials in Professional Employment,” 63 American Economic Rev. 693.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (1989) “Feminization of the Legal Profession: The Comparative Sociology of Women Lawyers,” in Abel, R. L. & Lewis, P. S. C., eds., Lawyers in Society, Vol. 3: Comparative Theories. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Mincer, Jacob, & Polachek, Solomon (1974) “Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women,” 82 J. of Political Economy S76 (Supp.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Robert L. (1988) Partners with Power: The Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parcel, Toby L., & Mueller, Charles W. (1983) Ascription and Labor Markets: Race and Sex Differences in Earnings. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Peterson, Richard R. (1989) “Firm Size, Occupational Segregation and the Effects of Family Status on Women's Wages,” 68 Social Forces 397.Google Scholar
Peterson, Richard, Dimitrova, Ganka, & Lambe, Joan (1992) “The Effect of Responsibility for Child Care Arrangements on the Earnings of Men and Women.” Unpublished, Sociology Department, New York Univ.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polachek, Solomon W. (1975) “Discontinuous Labor Force Participation and Its Effects on Women's Market Earnings,” in Lloyd, C. B., ed., Sex Discrimination and the Division of Labor. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Reskin, Barbara F., ed. (1984) Sex Segregation in the Workplace: Trends, Explanations, Remedies. Washington: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Reskin, Barbara F., & Hartmann, Heidi J. (1986) Women's Work, Men's Work: Sex Segregation on the Job. Washington: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Reskin, Barbara F., & Roos, Patricia A. (1990) Job Queues, Gender Ques: Explaining Women's Inroads into Male Occupations. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Seron, Carroll (1992) “Managing Entrepreneurial Legal Services: The Transformation of Small-Firm Practice,” in Nelson, R. L., Trubek, D. M., & Solomon, R. L., eds., Lawyers' Ideals/Lawyers' Practices. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Spangler, Eve (1986) Lawyers for Hire: Salaried Professionals at Work. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Spence, Michael A. (1974) Market Signaling. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Spilerman, Seymour (1977) “Careers, Labor Market Structure, and Socioeconomic Achievement,” 83 American J. of Sociology 551.Google Scholar
Stevens, Gillian, & Cho, Joo Hyun (1985) “Socioeconomic Indexes and the New 1980 Census Occupational Classification Scheme,” 14 Social Science Research 142.Google Scholar
Tienda, Marta, Smith, Shelley A., & Ortiz, Vilma (1987) “Industrial Restructuring, Gender Segregation and Sex Differences in Earnings,” 52 American Sociological Rev. 195.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Charles, Horan, Patrick M., & Beck, E. M. (1980) “The Structure of Economic Segmentation: A Dual Economy Approach,” 85 American J. of Sociology 1095.Google Scholar
Treiman, Donald J., & Terrell, Kermit (1975) “Sex and the Process of Status Attainment: A Comparison of Working Men and Women,” 40 American Sociological Rev. 174.Google Scholar
Wallace, Michael, & Kalleberg, Arne L. (1981) “Economic Organization of Firms and Labor Market Consequences: Toward a Specification of Dual Economy Theory,” in Berg 1981.Google Scholar
Warkov, Stanley (1965) Lawyers in the Making. New York: Aldine.Google Scholar
Waters, Malcolm (1989). “Collegiality, Bureaucratization and Professionalization: A Weberian Analysis,” 94 American J. of Sociology 945.Google Scholar
Weisenhaus, Doreen (1988) “Still a Long Way to Go for Women, Minorities,” National Law J., p. 1 (8 Feb.).Google Scholar
White, James J. (1967) “Women in the Law,” 65 Michigan Law Rev. 1051.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Doris Y. (1980) “Minority Women: Social-cultural Issues,” in Brodsky, A. M. & Hare-Mustin, R. T., eds., Women and Psychotherapy: An Assessment of Research and Practice. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, Wendy C., & Fligstein, Neil D. (1979) “Sex and Authority in the Workplace: The Causes of Sexual Inequality,” 44 American Sociological Rev. 235.Google Scholar