As I get older, memories fade.
Some memories, however, are forever.
Like hearing Rosa Parks relate how that bus driver asked her "why don't you make it light on yourself?"
Or hearing Fred Korematsu talk about how he had to try to prove his loyalty to the United States, questioned only because of his national heritage.
Or hearing my favorite law professor tell us how when she interviewed for a position as a litigator, she was told, "we don't hire women to be trial lawyers."
It's just in our lifetimes that there has been a change in the way women in the law have been perceived. From the days just a few decades ago when a law school might have one or two women only (and similarly, one or two African Americans), we have come a long way. But you can talk to a woman lawyer and she'll probably tell you about the time she walked into a conference room to take a deposition and someone asked her for coffee or water. Or like my professor, she may have been told point blank that women were deemed suitable for certain areas of the law only, like estate planning. In those days, litigation was considered too "rough and tumble" for women and their delicate feelings. Or their inability to separate their emotions.
Fortunately, a lot has changed. Many, maybe most, large law firms have made concerted efforts to recruit and keep women attorneys. The glass ceiling has been cracked and women have been appointed as managing attorneys. Again, often relegated to public defender offices, they're prosecutors and sometimes even elected as State's Attorney. They're on the bench at the trial court and appellate court level. No one who ever met Justice Kagan would accuse her of being timid or capable of being bullied.
So, imagine how it felt reading Shaun King's Front Page hit piece. Coyly stopping short of saying that the "fix is in," Shaun nevertheless concluded that "maybe [she] will do a great job holding officers accountable for what they did to Freddie Gray. I'd be shocked, though. What would her family think?" As of this writing, 200 people rec'd the tip jar and the tone of many comments echoed the sentiment that it would be "shocking" or a "miracle" if she could "overcome" the natural affinity she must have for family members.
See, how could a woman hold police officers accountable when she has to worry about what her family (that includes a number of police officers) might think?
Was Shaun's diary - still not updated despite the fact that Ms. Mosby today announced crminal charges - based in part on sexism? Or any of the people who rec'd his tip jar? I'll don't know if it was in the forefront of their minds. But I do know that sexism often creeps in unannounced, uninvited and even unintended. And that despite the changes, women in the law today still face a lot of baked-in prejudice because of their sex.
I also know that we're better than this.
10:17 AM PT: Update: After posting, Shaun did an update acknowledging the charges. Doing do was appropriate and right.