Lady Lawyers: How the Good Wife Portrays Females in the Legal System
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Hammes 1 Abby Hammes ENG 467: English Capstone Dr. Elizabeth Birmingham 13 December 2012 Lady Lawyers: How The Good Wife Portrays Females in the Legal System Abstract This research is an attempt at analyzing the messages that entertainment media sends to the public about female lawyers. Although much research has been done on this topic, it has not been revisited in many years, since the overwhelming response to Ally McBeal in the late 1990’s. Since culture is constantly changing, it is important to keep studying this representation to analyze positive or negative growth or change. An analysis of a more current television show, The Good Wife, which first aired in 2009, was used in this research to examine how American television portrays females in the legal system, how stereotypes and prescribed gender roles influence how these women behave, and what these characters suggest about the way society thinks about female lawyers in regards to their professionalism and success. Introduction In recent years, Americans have become more and more interested in television shows and films that center on stories of legal activity, specifically the courtroom drama. For those involved in the legal world, these television shows may provide insight into how American culture views the legal culture and those employed within it. Although analysis has been made on how films influence the public perception of the justice system, the legal process, the practice of law, and legal professionals, this topic continues to hold relevance in today’s society, which is why it is important to continue research as different television shows are aired and subject to the public eye. Given the large amount of television shows about the legal world are aired today, the way in which these shows represent lawyers and those of other legal occupations is only gaining relevance and importance. Culture is constantly shifting, so a constant awareness of its nature is necessary in order to recognize positive and negative changes. This paper will examine how American television portrays females in the legal system, how this different from the way in which male lawyers are depicted, how stereotypes and prescribed gender roles influence how these women behave, and what these characters suggest about the way society thinks about female lawyers. The questions this research will attempt to answer are as follows: How do media use the notion of professionalism to frame whether or not women are fit for the job of being a lawyer? Do media project female lawyers who are successful in their profession as more masculine in temperament or character than those women who are unsuccessful as lawyers? Hammes 2 What messages are being sent in these television shows about what constitutes a successful female lawyer? Is there something unique in the way female lawyers are presented in the realm of professionalism? This research is significant primarily because of the increase of female lawyers not only in the profession itself, but present within media in recent years. Only in the last century have women really begun to become major players in the legal field. Although women now account for almost half of the lawyers in the United States (Marek 77), in 1930 only 2% of the national bar was made up of women, until then “few occupational roles were viewed by the public as more patriarchal than that of lawyer” (Sheffield 74-75). In fact, only in 1970 did the American Association of Law Schools prohibit discrimination in their admissions policies regarding sex. Because of this exclusion of females in history, the dramatic increase and attention on females in the legal system is significant. Because television shows centering upon the legal system are becoming increasingly more numerous and more popular, it is incredibly important to be knowledgeable as to how these television shows are affecting societal expectations and attitudes. If media is portraying female lawyers a certain way, it is likely that viewers’ attitudes regarding female lawyers will be molded and influenced by these depictions. Literature Review The presence of women in the legal profession was contested as early as1872 when Bradwell v. Illinois determined states were constitutionally allowed to bar women from the legal profession (Marek 77). Even up until the 1930s, the “motion picture industry and public…embraced and demanded female domesticity”, believing that women had no place in the professional field (Sheffield 74); in fact, “few occupational roles were viewed by the public as more patriarchal than that of lawyer” up to that time (Sheffield 75). It was not until 1970 that the Association of American Law Schools even outlaws discrimination based on sex in regards to admissions policies (Marek 77). By the 1970s, the number of women in the legal field had grown significantly, and television responded by including more women characters, mostly supporting roles (Klein 261). In the 1980s women consisted of 8% of the total bar, by 2005 this number had reached 30% , and the 2011-2012 academic year included a law school enrollment made of 47% females (Lawyer Demographics). Television’s response to this increase has included at least seventy female lawyer characters present in the past twenty-five years (Klein 259-60). Despite this growth, women are still disadvantaged in many areas of the legal world. Only 20.1% of all Fortune 500 General Counsels, and even less (16.4%) are General Cuounsels for Fortune 501-1000 companies. Only 20.6% of all law school deans are female, and in 2011 women lawyers made on average $253 less per week than their male counterparts (A Current Glance at Women in the Law). Women also struggle to receive the same assumption of intelligence as their male counterparts; in fact, half and three-quarters of female attorneys believe that they are held to higher standards than their male counterparts or have to work harder for the same results” (Rhode 1004). Women lawyers fight a “historical, even if misguided, reality that relates lawyering with masculinity and good lawyers with men” (Epstein), supposedly because “characteristics traditionally associate with women are at odds with those traditionally associated with professional success, such as assertiveness, competitiveness, and business judgment” Hammes 3 (Rhode 1004). That is to say that“’real’ women, those who are feminine and possess stereotypical female attributes, would have neither the inclination nor ability to operate effectively in the legal profession” (Sheffield 89). These biases and stereotypes which work against female lawyers “ in the form of representational inaccuracies, persist in prime-time television’s depiction of women lawyers” (Klein 260). This is important because, according to DeFleur, incidental learning takes place as a result of our consumption of television, especially because “television absorbs extensive time daily” for most Americans (58-59). Because of “television’s ability to shape our view of the world in general, and the legal system in particular”, it works as a “powerful cultural force” (Marek 77), which causes a “concern that viewers, including both potential lawyers and clients, are obtaining an inaccurate picture of the legal profession” (Klein 273). These inaccurate pictures of the legal profession are concerning for several reasons: a) “portrayals of lawyers in fictional narratives affect the career choices of many people” (Menkel- Meadow 2), b) “depictions of lawyers affect how students and new lawyers experience both their legal educations and their first forays into legal practice” (Menkel-Meadow 3), (c) “narratives about lawyers, in written or visual form, present us with assumptions about what lawyers and the legal system look like” (Menkel-Meadow 5), and (d) “stories and depictions of lawyers matter— both because these stories reflect what we think about lawyers, and because they can shape what readers, viewers, and would-be attorneys may think about lawyers in the future” (Menkel- Meadow 24). In order to understand the importance of these depictions, one might compare the representation of lawyers in television to the representations of another occupation such as a member of wait staff at a restaurant. Because most Americans are likely to have had plenty of their own experience with wait staff personally, depictions of these characters in television most likely will not influence a previously held, personal idea of what people of these occupation are like; however, contact with lawyers is a much more uncommon occurrence. Some citizens may not ever have contact with lawyers. Because of this lessened real-life contact, any impressions of lawyers created by the media are much more likely to adhere in the minds of viewers who do not hold any preconceived notions. Many themes persist in past studies of the representation of female lawyers on television, most of which include the television shows L.A. Law and Ally McBeal, of which gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Of these, several themes emerge, including patterns of personal/professional conflict, sexualization, motherhood, mentorship, competence, and relationships with male characters. Perhaps the most common, and accordingly the themes that “generate the most viewer interest are those that involve sex or domestic strife” (Epstein). In L.A.Law, “dissonance between their professional and private lives” exists for every female character (Glass 401-02). Ally McBeal promotes the personal/professional conflict, which, according to Cohen, is a dominant postfeminist