The Women’s Bar Association: Raising the Bar for 90 Years!
Founded in 1917, the Women’s Bar Association celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, making it one of the oldest and largest voluntary bar associations in metropolitan Washington, D.C. Today, as in 1917, we continue to pursue our mission of:
Maintaining the honor and integrity of the profession; promoting the administration of justice; advancing and protecting the interests of women lawyers; promoting their mutual improvement; and encouraging a spirit of friendship among our members.
When Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillette founded the WBA, women could not vote and often were not even allowed to apply to law school, let alone become members of the Bar or practice law. TODAY, 50% of law school graduates are women. In celebrating our Founders, we proudly say that we have won that battle.
However, we have work yet to do. Although 50% of law school graduates are women, only 15% of law firm partners and general counsel are women, percentages that have not changed significantly for more than a decade. Even fewer law partners and general counsel are women of color.
I therefore ask all of you to JOIN ME, JOIN US, in continuing the work of the WBA during my year as WBA President:
FIRST, we will continue our work on the WBA’s Initiative on Advancement and Retention of Women in the Profession. In our ground-breaking and acclaimed Report, Creating Pathways to Success, we identified the problems that cause women to leave our law firms in disproportionate numbers and discussed strategies for promoting talented women into the highest business ranks of the law--and keeping them there. We are continuing this important, nationally recognized work in three important ways:
· Focusing on the barriers that women lawyers of color face of both gender and race.
· Teaching our women law graduates and law students about a true Pathway to Power: the importance of business development, and how to achieve it.
· Addressing issues in our in-house legal departments that may impede women’s success.
SECOND, we will expand the work on Judicial Independence, begun in March 2007 at our Judicial Reception. A bedrock of our democratic system is open access to fair and impartial courts.
In September 2005, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor challenged the WBA to join her in protecting our courts from political attack. Therefore, to pursue that challenge:
- We will work on educating the public and the Bar about the importance of allowing our courts to function as intended by the Founders—impartially.
- We will provide spokespeople to defend the importance of allowing courts to operate freely and fairly, without partisan or political attack.
So call me, write me! Stay involved, get involved! We look forward to working with you!
