Carolyn, I’m glad to hear from you. Gender bias is real and it’s out there; your own experience stands as testimony. Sounds like you’ve been there, in the trenches, seeing the battle up close. From my early days as an attorney I saw it first-hand, starting with the male attorney who asked me during a law school job interview how I expected to be a good mother to my four-year-old son if I worked full-time as a lawyer (as if he’d have ever dared to ask a man the same question). You just can’t make this stuff up.

I will say though that I don’t agree that women corner the market on communication skills or emotional intelligence; I’ve met professional women who lack them and also men who possess both in abundance – I know, I’ve raised a son who does. Generalizations and stereotyping serve none of us well. I share your anger and your frustration, but I say it’s time we laid to rest these persistent myths about gender-based attributes and focus instead on ensuring that all of us – women and men – have equal access to business opportunities and professional respect.

So let’s claim common cause on this issue and pledge to do battle together – I’d be honored to fight with a fierce warrior like you at my side. Thanks again, Carolyn.

Whereas American women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our Nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways; Whereas American women have played and continue to play a critical…..

Thank you SO MUCH for this post – this call to action. I approached our local women’s lawyers organization today – the 90-year old Women Lawyers of Los Angeles – offering to help create and promote a Women in ADR Committee there. The response was inviting and I hope to be able to comment on progress made in the near future. We should, as you suggest here, join forces with all organizations for which diversity and inclusivity are important goals. This is not simply an issue affecting ADR professionals – it is also a justice issue. Some women activists see nothing short of a conspiracy to move the weakest and most vulnerable members of society out of a justice system that has become far more diverse in the past 20 years and into a system of private arbitration and mediation that remains in the hands of white men. Some academics have suggested that mediation, for instance, coerces women to accept harmony over justice. This is not only a challenge to the justice system, it is a serious challenge to the legitimacy of ADR itself. In this context, inclusivity in ADR goes beyond the well-being of its practitioners, to the viability and respect of ADR itself, not to mention the even-handed and non-discriminatory treatment of those whose disputes are being decided.