The Gender Pay Gap and High-Achieving Women in the Legal Profession

Authors

Milan Markovic, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow
Gabrielle Plickert, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2022

Journal Title

Law & Social Inquiry

ISSN

1747-4469

DOI

10.1017/lsi.2022.7

Abstract

Although women have made significant strides in the legal profession, female attorneys continue to earn far less than male attorneys. Relying on survey data from a large sample of full-time attorneys in Texas, we find a gender pay gap of thirty-five thousand dollars at the median that cannot be explained by differences in human capital or occupational segregation. We also provide evidence that the legal market especially disadvantages women who excel in law school. Whereas high academic achievement boosts male lawyers’ incomes substantially, it does not have the same effect on female lawyers’ incomes. High-achieving female lawyers earn less than high-achieving male lawyers across practice settings and earn less than their lower-achieving male counterparts in private practice. We conclude that discrimination in the legal profession operates partly by devaluing female attorneys’ human capital, such that sterling academic credentials and other traits that are valued in men are far less valued in women.

First Page

1

Last Page

32

Num Pages

32

Volume Number

47

Issue Number

3

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Notes

This article was published in April 2022 via the journal's FirstView prior to being published within a volume or issue. Subsequent versions of this article may have different pagination, volume, and/or issue metadata, available at https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2022.7.

Recommended Citation

Milan Markovic & Gabrielle Plickert, The Gender Pay Gap and High-Achieving Women in the Legal Profession, 47 Law & Soc. Inquiry 1 (2022).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1564

File Type

PDF