The WSJ blog reports:
Bryan Cave sponsored a ?shoe event? in Manhattan recently for its female lawyers and female clients, described in great detail in a WSJ column yesterday. Earlier this month, Skadden Arps hosted its ninth annual Skadden Women?s retreat at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Fla., attended by some 60 women partners and 135 women clients. The same weekend, Akin Gump held a similar event in Washington, D.C., for all of its female attorneys.
These types of women-only networking events are proliferating. ?There are spa retreats, conferences at resorts, evenings at art galleries and cooking demonstrations, all organized by women who want to network and socialize with clients in their own way ? at least some of the time,? writes the WSJ.
These confabs raise some complicated issues. What about the male clients of female lawyers? And the female lawyers of male clients? Some women think these events perpetuates stereotypes. And some men wonder, ?With all the equality women have achieved, why do they continue to have these separate events??
One also
wonders how loud the howls from the bar and media would be if somebody
reintroduced men-only events - maybe a dinner [update: a
dinner and smoker at an all-male dining club] with red meat, foie gras,
and red wine, passing of the port after dinner and smoking of cigars -
for men "who want to network and socialize with clients in their
own way ? at least some of the time"? Deafening would be my guess.
Sauce. Gander. Goose.
