Mean Girls or Gender Equity?

My best friend in college was this amazing young woman who had talent oozing out of every pore in her body. She was also . . . well, unconventional. That is to say, she did things the way she felt like doing them, whether it made her "fit in" or not. She had confidence by the truckload. She used to laugh at the girls who ran around in gaggles, giggling, and call them, "slick chicks." "We'll NEVER be like that," she'd say, "and thank goodness!" What she meant was that it was more important to her to be authentic than accepted. The "slick chicks" were beautiful, polished, and conformist, and everything but authentic human beings. In college, they still hung out in groups, just like children do in middle school. Whoever didn't meet their "criteria" was shunned or worse, in much the same way children behave in middle school.

Well, slick chicks don't disappear, they just get older and form "women's only" clubs dedicated to what they call "gender equity." For example, the Women's Bar Association (WBA), a group formed for women lawyers with chapters in almost every state. They hit their stride in the mid-80s and have only been increasing in political power since then. http://www.ncwba.org/aboutus-history.shtml

The problem is, they only manage to duplicate the problem they say they want to solve. Some state chapters may allow men to join, but I can't imagine a man in the world who'd want to belong. The WBA has become dangerously powerful. For years now, standard career wisdom in law schools in my state, and many others where the WBA holds the reins of power is that if you want to succeed in your career, male or female, especially if you ever want to be a judge, you absolutely must "get in good" with the WBA. I often wonder what would happen if there were a legal specialty organization dedicated to, and populated only with men with the same level of power? It is true that once, men held the same kind of power, but that was a long time ago. Not only that, but does it make sense to simply mimic the same kind of gender-based power and control? Will that even the score? Isn't it gender-based power that organizations such as the WBA were formed to combat? Could a similarly focused men's group get away with the same thing in these days of "gender equity??"

The WBA has our male counterparts in the bar and on the bench quaking in terror lest they say or do a single thing that would offend the Queen Bees. But honestly, why do we need such a group? It's not like women are the minority now! http://www.catalyst.org/publication/246/women-in-law-in-the-us


I suppose that when you've been put down for so long, it's only natural to want to stay on top of the heap, even if it means your stiletto heel is doing exactly what that hobnail boot did for so long! Remember when Mom used to say, "If he was jumping off the bridge, would you do it too?" Seems to me, it's time to listen to the good advice of our mothers!