By: Molly Doggett<\/p>\n
The International Women\u2019s Day event organized by Harvard Law and International Development Society<\/a> and the Harvard Women’s Law Association<\/a> featured three bright and diverse women, each with her own story of not only \u201cleaning in\u201d to her career, but staying <\/em>in. The event began with a brief video address by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who acknowledged the accomplishments of women and our strides in women\u2019s rights, and encouraged the audience to continue down this path towards equality. After the video address, each of the three speakers shared her story and encouraged the audience, comprised mostly of law students, professors, and other honorees, to \u201cstay in\u201d for ourselves and for the next generation as well. As a member of Harvard Law School\u2019s first class of students evenly split between men and women, I am grateful to the three speakers, and all other strong women like them, for \u201cstaying in\u201d and making it possible for me, my classmates, and my friends to be where we are today.<\/p>\n Panel speakers Mindy Roseman and Katherine Ashley shared their career and life experiences as successful women in the legal field. Mindy Roseman recounted her journey from a child who hated wearing dresses (as she was often forcefully encouraged to do), to the Academic Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard, and now Yale Law School\u2019s Director of International Programs and Director of the Gruber Program on Global Justice and Women\u2019s Rights. That journey included many years of hard work and dedication to the areas of reproductive and sexual rights and women\u2019s rights. Katherine Ashley joined the panel as the first person at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to make partner on a part-time schedule, a feat that took her 17 years to accomplish. Katherine recounted her choice to start a family and to pursue a part-time schedule at the firm in order to maintain a dedicated presence to both her family and her work at the firm. Katherine \u201cstayed in\u201d for 17 years before being made partner \u2013 an accolade that most people on the partner track receive in half that time. Both Mindy Roseman and Katherine Ashley impressed the rapt audience with their patience, dedication, grace, and strength in pursuance of their chosen career paths.<\/p>\n The International Women\u2019s Day event also reminded me that mere generations ago, there was an active struggle for women to be accepted into their chosen fields, and once over that hurdle, to be taken seriously. Keynote speaker Roxanne Conlin, one of the first women to be named United States Attorney, recalled her time in law school as one of three women in her class. She remembered how law firms would call the school and ask for the names of the top three students, to which the school would reply, \u201cbut, the top three students are women,\u201d and the firm would answer, \u201cok then, give me the next three names.\u201d She recalled being called on in class for every single case that dealt in some way with sex, adding that this meant that she was called on a lot because \u201ca lot of cases dealt with sex.\u201d She remembered attending class while pregnant during her second year of law school and not being called on \u2013 or even acknowledged \u2013 at all during the last month of her pregnancy, sensing that her professors were afraid that if they called on her, \u201cthe stress would cause the baby to come out right then!\u201d Mrs. Conlin also recounted an episode of blatant sexual harassment that she experienced at one of her first jobs after law school, in which her supervisor said he heard rumors of sexual promiscuity in the office and asked \u201cwhen his turn was.\u201d Mrs. Conlin said she reacted to this event in the way that \u201cwomen of the time did\u201d \u2013 by asking herself what she was doing wrong. She asked herself what she had done to invite this from her superior \u2013 was she dressing \u201ctoo provocatively,\u201d had she said something to lead him on? Today, she dismissed these thoughts as ridiculous, but acknowledged how at the time she experienced feelings of personal doubt. Mrs. Conlin left this job shortly thereafter, but pushed ahead in her career, eventually becoming one of the first women to be named United States Attorney. President Jimmy Carter appointed her at the United State Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa in 1977, a job that she said she truly loved. Mrs. Conlin today works in the private practice at her own firm, where she says she continues to fight discrimination on behalf of her clients and people everywhere.<\/p>\n Each of the speakers at the International Women\u2019s Day event shared a powerful self-narrative of patiently but actively pursuing her personal and career goals. Each echoed the advice of the others, noting that women should not only \u201clean in\u201d to their careers but should also \u201cstay in.\u201d The three speakers had made it to where they were because they had stayed in \u2013 they had not backed down in the face of blatant adversity or an uphill battle, but had continued pushing on for themselves and for women like them. Perhaps the best advice of the day came from Roxanne Conlin, who said that \u201cwhen a man steeples his fingers at you, that\u2019s a power move,\u201d and pausing to demonstrate, advised with a grin: \u201cyou should always steeple back.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Molly Doggett The International Women\u2019s Day event organized by Harvard Law and International Development Society and the Harvard Women’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":943,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lids-live"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/943"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}