Abigail Bogli Co-Authors Wisconsin Law Review Article About Women in Law and Addressing Gender Inequality

Abigail Bogli, a Quarles & Brady attorney in the Estate, Trust & Wealth Preservation Practice Group, co-authored a Wisconsin Law Review article that discusses women in law and dives into gender inequality within law firms. In the article, Bogli presents evidence from a detailed case study on the underrepresentation of women, explores how gender inequality drives many women to leave firms and highlights important questions for law students to consider when addressing this issue.

An excerpt:

But law schools and students may be able to effect change. In the hiring process, law students are uniquely positioned to press law firms on key issues such as gender equality. And law schools owe it to their students to shine a light on the inequality women and students of color may experience upon graduating — regardless of their performance in law school. We hope that law school career offices — by pushing for more transparency and equipping students to ask pointed questions after receiving an offer — can help impact change.

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While women have been entering law school in the same numbers as men, the research shows that women are leaving the profession at alarming rates.³⁷ “The attrition of experienced women lawyers reverberates throughout the profession and heavily impacts law firms and legal departments.”³⁸ The loss of these experienced women lawyers also “affects the retention of junior women lawyers who look to veteran women lawyers as role models, mentors, and proof that success is possible.”³⁹ To understand why attrition rates among women are so high, researchers have found two of the most prominent explanations to be leadership disparities and pay disparities.⁴⁰ These factors can work in tandem, or separately: Even if a woman secures a leadership position at her firm, the pay disparity may persist, making the post untenable.⁴¹ The result? Women leave their firms, or worse, the legal field.

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