Miscellaneous

The Palin Effect

By Anne Skove, Esq.

The other night we were late to the debate. We were in a roomful of older, white men, talking about a once-popular but now nearly-defunct phenomenon.

No, we weren't at a GOP meeting, but we sure felt like Governor Palin. And not just because we can hear gibbons from our house!

We were researching an article about our fair city's train station. It was built during the Depression (the other one), and opened just as trains were about to depart to make way for air travel. Our polite host was 88 years old. Announcements for the railroad club included news about an elderly member who had Alzheimer's.

Aside from reps from an excursion company, court-o-rama was the only female in the room. Uncomfortable? Nope. Expected? You betcha! Worrisome? Not really. One member had a shirt: "Still plays with trains." That's all it is. Truly, we could not have experienced a warmer welcome.

But when it comes to professions and professionals, gender differences can be more problematic. When was the last time you read about a man worrying whether he should quit his job and stay home with the kids? (Ben never moped, he just did it!) When was the last time you heard a man lose points for speaking his mind or asking questions? And are there enough females in certain jobs, or are there too many male ones?

Law.com hits the irrelevancy nail squarely on the head again, this time with a trilogy of wacky theories about why there aren't enough female blawggers (as if the what the world needs now are blawgs sweet blawgs):

• 1. "Woman law bloggers are out there, you just don't see them." Look, hey, over here! But seriously, we're not sure what to make of this totally unsupported claim.
• 2. Too busy to blog because of kids! We put Things One and Two to bed while their older sib does homework. They get to listen to iTunes (lullaby mix), we catch up on stuff. It's win-win. Without kids we'd blog less, not more. We'd be too busy club-hopping or celebrating Rutherford B. Hayes Month or whatever it is DINKS and single people do.
• 3. Dangerousness: "Is blogging more dangerous for women than it is for men?" court-o-rama, as everyone knows, is the "least dangerous blog!"

Thanks to the man at Simple Justice for finding this goofy article, and for naming court-o-rama as one of his favorite (and gosh-darn folksiest) blawgs in the room. See Women Blawg Just Fine, Scott Greenfield, Simple Justice (October 5, 2008).

See also, if you must (we are sticklers for even the silliest of primary sources) Where Are All the Female Law Bloggers?, C.C. Holland, special to Law.com (October 6, 2008). Be immediately suspect of any headline using the phrase "female law bloggers."

For more about women, professionalism, inter-gender dynamics, and civility (or lack thereof), see The Price of Incivility: Who Pays?, Bea Larsen, Commentaries (October 4, 2008). Warning: content contains horror stories!

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on October 05, 2008 (boomark / email).