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Women Lawyers and Their Working Arrangements: Time Crunch, Stress and Career Paths*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

Jean McKenzie Leiper
Jean McKenzie Leiper
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, King's College, University of Western Ontario
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Abstract

Life in industrial societies is governed by different kinds of “time”: mathematical or monochronic time predominates in the workplace but sociocultural or polychronic time prevails at home, particularly where young children are present. Many women report high levels of “time crunch” as they move between these two spheres and these effects are heightened for women in the professions. In this study, I test four hypotheses: women lawyers have higher time crunch levels than women in the general population. Time crunch is heightened among women who take primary responsibility for the care of young children and those who work in large law firms. As women grow older and shed some of the demands of child care, their time crunch levels drop. This study incorporates both quantitative and qualitative approaches: a regression analysis of “time crunch stress” is used to test the major hypotheses and excerpts from unstructured interviews deal with time management problems in the lives of these women. Findings from the regression analysis reveal heightened time crunch stress for the women in this study, particularly if they assume major responsibility for child care. Neither firm size nor age has a statistically significant effect on time crunch stress. Women lawyers are caught between two kinds of time and, over the long term, their careers assume shapes that differ from those of their male counterparts. These divergent career patterns suggest that current career theories are in need of reassessment and revision.

Résumé

Dans les sociétés industrielles, la vie est soumise à différents types de «temps»: le temps mathématique ou monochrone prédomine sur les lieux du travail, mais le temps socio-culturel ou polychrone prévaut à la maison, particulièrement en présence de jeunes enfants. De nombreuses femmes signalent qu'elles sont très «coincées par le temps» lorsqu'elles passent d'une de ces sphères à l'autre, et cet effet est encore plus fort chez les femmes professionnelles. Quatre hypothèses seront examinées ici. Les femmes avocates seraient davantage coincées par le temps que les femmes dans la population en général. Ce phénomène serait aggravé chez les femmes qui assument à titre principal la responsabilité et le soin de jeunes enfants. Il le serait aussi chez celles qui travaillent dans de grands bureaux d'avocats. À mesure que ces femmes avancent en âge et sont délestées de leurs responsabilités familiales, elles deviendraient moins coincées par le temps. L'étude recourt à des approches à la fois quantitatives et qualitatives: elle utilise une analyse régressive du «stress de surmenage» (“time crunch stress”) pour vérifier les hypothèses majeures et se sert d'extraits d'entrevues non structurées pour examiner les problèmes de gestion du temps de ces femmes dans leur vécu. Les résultats de l'analyse régressive révèlent une hausse du stress de surmenage chez celles qui assument la responsabilité principale d'élever des enfants. Ni la taille du bureau d'avocats ni l'âge n'ont d'effet significatif au plan statistique sur le stress de surmenage. Les femmes avocates sont coincées entre deux types de temps et, à long terme, leur carrière prennent des formes qui diffèrent de celles de leurs vis-à-vis masculins. Cette différence de modèles de carrière suggère que les théories courantes à ce sujet ont besoin d'être réévaluées et révisées.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Fall/automne 1998 , pp. 117 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 1998

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References

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18. At the time of writing, 28 of the 30 women from the 1994 study had been interviewed again. One woman had not responded to repeated letters and telephone messages. A second woman was very busy so her interview had been postponed until later in the year.

19. For more information on the design of the 1994 and 1996 studies, see Leiper, J. McKenzie, “It Was Like ‘Wow!’: The Experience of Women Lawyers in a Profession Marked by Linear Careers” (1997) 9 C.J.W.L. at 115.Google Scholar

20. Robinson, supra note 7.

21. Frederick, supra note 8.

22. Lee, Duxbury & Higgins, supra note 12. The main time management question was “[d]o you feel that there are enough hours in the day to accomplish everything you have to do?”

23. Analysis of the time crunch data from the Statistics Canada Time Use Survey reveals a Cronbach's alpha of 852.

24. These findings are based on an SPSS analysis of the 1992 Statistics Canada General Social Survey Time Use data set.

25. Lee, Duxbury & Higgins, supra note 12.

26. Firm size was included in a preliminary regression analysis but it had no appreciable effect on time crunch.

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28. See McKenzie Leiper supra note 19 for more detail on the attitudes of senior male partners to pregnancy and the practice of law.

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31. One of the senior partners who was interviewed again in 1998 expressed very strong concern about her firm's commitment to longer hours. She felt that women would suffer because the billing demands would make it impossible for them to manage work and family responsibilities.

32. Sorokin, supra note 4.

33. Hall, supra note 5.

34. Ibid. at 52.

35. J. Marshall, “Re-visioning Career Concepts” in Arthur, Hall & Lawrence, eds., supra note 6, 275.

36. J. Gallos, “Exploring Women's Development: Implications of Career Theory, Practice, and Research” in Arthur, Hall & Lawrence eds., ibid., 110.