WOMEN’S SENSE-MAKING OF OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES IN THE PROFESSION OF ATTORNEY IN POLAND
Journal Title: Kultura i Społeczeństwo - Year 2018, Vol 62, Issue 4
Abstract
The article examines the ways in which women make sense of the opportunity structures in which they operate as female attorneys in Poland. The study applies Joan Acker’s theory of gendered organization and a narrative approach to the analysis of interview data with 15 Polish female attorneys who practice law and are members of the Warsaw Chamber of the Bar. These women are pursuing their careers in a highly competitive and still male-dominated profession. The results demonstrate the continuing struggle of women to reconcile the often conflicting expectations and roles of professional and personal lives. The findings point towards four gendering processes that venture from the structure of the profession of attorney in Poland: professionally committed women are not limited by their family life; women need to invest more in activities that attract new clients; male attorneys are attributed greater authority; and women are more empathic. These processes sustain gender inequalities in the profession of attorney as they carry expectations of women to adapt to the existing professional structures in order to access more equal career opportunities. However, by making sense of the shared experiences of work-life conflict and of the feminine/masculine dichotomy, women exert agency to their claims to professional expertise.
Authors and Affiliations
Marta Choroszewicz
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP546696
- DOI -
- Views 97
- Downloads 0
DYSKURSY PSYCHOTERAPII A ROZUMIENIE RZECZYWISTOŚCI SPOŁECZNEJ
THE DISCOURSES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL REALITY Complex and changing social conditions engender the need to find a language to describe the phenomena and to elucidate their mechanisms. One possibility i...
O BIEDNYCH NIKT NIE CHCE SŁUCHAĆ — ROZMOWA Z PROFESOR ELŻBIETĄ TARKOWSKĄ
'No One Wants to Hear About the Poor' - interview in 2005
ETOS DWORU I „LUDZI DOBRZE WYCHOWANYCH”: EPITAFIUM DLA INTELIGENCJI
THE ETHOS OF NOBILITY AND OF WELL-MANNERED PEOPLE: AN EPITAPH FOR POLISH INTELLIGENTSIA The article is devoted to a critical analysis of current controversies concerning the Polish national identity, and the interpretat...
CZAS SPOŁECZNY W OKRESIE PRZEMIAN, CZYLI O NOWYCH ZRÓŻNICOWANIACH SPOŁECZEŃSTWA POLSKIEGO
SOCIAL TIME IN A PERIOD OF CHANGE, OR ON THE NEW DIFFERENTIATIONS IN POLISH SOCIETY The author draws attention to the appearance of a new source of differentiations in Polish society at the beginning of the 1990s—the c...
JANA SZCZEPAŃSKIEGO „ROZPRAWA Z CZASEM”
JAN SZCZEPAŃSKI’S ‘DEALING WITH TIME’ The author considers the issue of time in Jan Szczepański’s works in comparison to the issue in contemporary sociology. She analyses the role of personal experiences as an importan...