The key to the conundrum lies in the social construction of femininity and masculinity through what are termed the ‘fictive feminine’ and the ‘imagined masculine.'ĭrawing on qualitative research conducted for Dissonance and Distrust Women in the Legal Profession (Oxford University Press, 1996), the paper considers the ways in which the gender boundary is maintained so that the masculine remains the norm and the feminine the `other' for legal practice. Structural theories of discrimination may be invoked to explain the gender differential, but it is argued that such theories are inadequate. It is apparent that the liberal progressivist thesis, which avers that the asymmetry will be remedied through numerosity, cannot be sustained. ![]() Despite a significant increase in the number of women in the legal profession, women continue to be disproportionately represented in the lower echelons.
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