This question could be answered simply by saying that the role of women is the same as our male colleagues. However, in a time like the present when diversity and gender differences are not just recognized and guaranteed, but are also valued as a highly relevant intangible by organizations, it is essential to identify which characteristics make female lawyers relevant in the exercise of what is still a very male-dominated profession.
I admit that I am influenced by my condition as a woman and a lawyer. I have been lucky enough to have academic and work opportunities open to me precisely for being female; and I have been able to share experiences with fellow female bosses, colleagues, friends and students and learn to value and strengthen various traits that are closely connected to our physiology. I have also had to deal with roles imposed due to stereotypes; but I have taken away valuable lessons from this prejudice, as I have learned to take advantage of what society expects of me for being a woman.
Since antiquity, women have developed their empathetic skills: our great grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers have practiced and then, almost by osmosis, have transmitted this capacity to put ourselves in others’ shoes to understand their perspectives. Our brain works with mirror neurons which activate when we recognize emotions in others; a skill which enables us to connect on an emotional level with our counterparts, with judges, witnesses and experts.
According to a study by McMaster University, the female brain has a greater density of neurons in certain regions associated with language comprehension and processing. As a result, women are better at communicating our ideas, we reach our audiences more assertively which makes us extraordinary litigators and orators.
Women have an emotional memory: the amygdala, critical for remembering emotional events, reacts differently in men and women. While men remember the essence of the event, women remember more detail, which enhances our capacity for investigation and discovery.
After several years of research, Harvard University revealed that the prefrontal cortex, key to executive functions, has a larger volume in women than in men. This makes us better planners, more organized and more capable of controlling our impulses; traits which are naturally compatible with a profession where order and control are vital.
So, although the legal profession has historically been male-dominated, and the law has been built from an androcentric perspective, it is clear that women have many strengths which, when used and channeled properly, make us brilliant lawyers.
If I had to choose which qualities a woman contributes to the legal profession, I would go with those that I identify in all the female lawyers I see day to day: an innate ability to think and handle various issues at once; intuition, which allows us to get straight to the facts and see beyond the obvious; emotion, which makes us passionate about our fights and interests; and planning which enables us to organize and prioritize our activities to achieve a balance in our professional and private lives.
It gives me great pride to see more and more women in my university classes. And I hope that with time this will also happen in the legal profession, which owes a large debt to women, and where there is an immensely rich space for us to contribute our ideas, unique talents and innate skills.
Editorial Board
