According to statistics released by the American Bar Association in 2008, women currently comprise a disproportionate 18 percent of partners at law firms and 19 percent of law school deans.
Given these statistics, many women find beginning law careers daunting. To benefit these women, a group of law-school-bound women founded Pre-Law Women at Penn, which had its inaugural meeting last night.
"There are a lot of woman law students and female lawyers, so they aren't exactly underrepresented," said College sophomore Sarah Klein of these figures, "but in terms of higher-level positions, there's still a glass ceiling."
Klein, now president of PWP, said she was inspired to found a "community of women interested in pre-law." The group's mission statement includes providing both personal support and career-related opportunities to undergraduate women thinking of pursuing law school or careers in the legal field.
Klein specified that while other pre-law organizations already exist on campus, none address the needs of female pre-law students exclusively.
"We're trying to explore all the career options that exist for women and have representatives, like woman lawyers and female law students, come talk to us," Klein elaborated.
She added that the group aims to ask speakers questions of interest to female pre-law students, citing the "age-old question of balancing career and family" as an example.
"Beyond that, there's also the question of the so-called 'old boys' club' and how women need to work through the system and through firms to gain higher-level positions," said College sophomore and vice president and chairwoman of government and advocacy Meg Hlousek.
The group has recently been contacting local law firms in hopes of finding mentors and job-shadowing opportunities for members.
According to College junior and vice president and chairwoman of lawyer and law-firm outreach Katie McCarthy, PWP will "set up contacts for one-on-one job shadowing, help to compile information on internships and give members avenues to search for opportunities on their own."
In addition, Klein said, PWP plans to establish relationships with both lawyers in Philadelphia and law professors at Penn, tour courts and law schools and arrange LSAT practice sessions.
"Since we're just starting up, we'll see what we can get, but as of now we're putting out a broad net and seeing what comes back," Klein said.
Affirming the possibility of collaborating with other like-minded groups, Klein indicated that PWP has been in contact with the John Marshall Pre-Law Honor Society and is "interested in working with them."
Hlousek further explained that while there is some overlap between the objectives advanced by the two groups, PWP "wants to explore different opportunities, avenues and pathways for women" and focus more on female pre-law students in general.
Among the crowd at last night's meeting in Irvine Auditorium's Cafe 58 were sophomore Ayasha Guerin and freshman Alicia DeMaio, both of whom said they attended the meeting to aid their decisions about pursuing law school.
