Well, we haven't talked about one area, and that relates to this advice
and that is, law schools almost all have women in law organizations. I
think they're very important. The fact that we have almost 50% women in
law schools, does not obviate the need to have a group that you can
identify with and start building systematic ties. I am a big, big
believer in being part of the regular bar, you know, I go to bar
meetings, I've taken part, I serve on committees, you know I think
that's important for anybody and it's part of service. And, you know, I
believe that if you're a professional, that you have to relate to
Page 36 your profession as an institution in addition to
doing your work for your clients.
But the need for people to focus on women's issues is still there. Sexism
has not disappeared and the legal status of women, while it's improved a
lot, there are still many things, many issues of importance, that are
more important to women than to others. Choice is a good example. You
know, issues of choice? Issues of family law, I mean God knows that in
the next two decades we're going to be focusing on this issue, of when
is a parent a parent. And while that of course is an issue for the male
and the female, it is primarily a woman's issue, because its women who
are bearing these kids, whether they're inseminated, or surrogate
parents, or the person who wants the custody, and the child, you know,
those are enormously interesting issues. Interesting lesbian issues, you
know, what happens now when you've got two lesbians and one of them has
a kid? I mean there are all kinds of lawsuits these days about visiting
rights to these, you know, two lesbians getting together, and they
decide, we'll have a kid, and one of them has it, and the other one
thinks, I'm a co-parent, and then they split up. What are the rights and
obligations of that co-parent? These are women's focused issues and
they've got to be dealt with. And so, we need this now.
In the years since I got out of law school, and I was part of this group,
we founded the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys and that
group has become very vital over the years. It is an important group, it
has lobbied the legislature-equitable distribution. I personally sat in
Marissa Schoolmaker's office with another woman attorney and drafted the
original legislation of that now. It was modified of course, but, you
know, and I did that as then president of the North Carolina Association
of Women Attorneys. We lobbied that issue successfully, and that was
ours, the women attorneys, we're the ones that got that passed and there
are other issues like that. In North Carolina up until a couple years
ago, if you owned
Page 37 property in joint tenancy, the
male was entitled to all of the rents and profits. It's absurd, you
know, a man in jail could throw his wife out of the house and install
his girlfriend, which is what happened in this state because the law
gave him the right to control that home, so we got that abolished by
legislative lobbying.
That organization has been important to say on judges. It supports people
who judge, endorsements and all kinds of things. My advice to women
graduating from law school is to be active in organizations like that,
both locally and state-wide. Don't say, I've made it, I'm here, I'm
equal, there's no such thing as a woman lawyer, I'm a lawyer. I believe
that in the logic, important sense, but in the political sense of
getting the kind of solidarity and support that makes us count, that
gives us a bigger voice than the legislature, that allows us to do
something, you've got to have groups. I mean, that's why you have an
AMA, you know, doctors are people too, right, but they have a strong
lobbying organization in Congress, everybody does, and women don't have
a lobbying organization, except for us. You know, we need to work on
things like that, and so you can't come out of college, [and say] I made
it, I wasn't discriminated, I got here on my own, I'm a bright young
woman and I've got a career ahead of me, and why do I need women's
organizations for?
The answer is you need them because we open the doors to begin with, and
we're going to open other doors, the battle isn't over and women have to
learn that the same way that blacks have to learn it. Some of the most
noted black activists I know mourn that their children are uninterested
in these causes. They say, well, we don't have those laws that didn't
allow us to walk on the side of the street, and you know, they're all
gone, those Jim Crow laws. But the truth is, it isn't just laws, laws
have to be interpreted, they have be enforced, they have to be changed,
you know, its an evolving process that will never stop. And maybe in a
century we'll have more equality than we do now, but we do not have it
yet by a long shot. And these large numbers of very
Page 38 bright wonderful women graduating from law school owe it to their
foremothers to keep on fighting for us, and that means banding together
and getting in place to do that sort of thing. It means running for the
legislature, it means really stepping out in front and realizing that in
addition, and this is the kind of speech that the judges like to give to
lawyers, you know, you owe service. When you get sworn in in the
ceremony and in most counties, they have a big ceremony for everybody at
once in the fall so, you know, 40, 50 lawyers get sworn in at once, and
the presiding judge always makes nice speeches about service and stuff
like that. Well, that's real. That is real. That is something lawyers,
professionals have an obligation for service, maybe everyone does, but I
can't speak to everyone. I think we would have a better country if we
all were more community minded. But I would speak to the women and say,
when you're coming out of law school remember that obligation of
service, and if you don't care about women, who else is going to? So
others may do something else, others may build houses for the poor,
others may serve on corporate boards, and that's fine, I have nothing
against that, and maybe women ought to do that too, but don't forget our
special needs.