Discussion

• 1. What are the difficulties in doing a controlled, double-blind experiment to determine whether there is sex discrimination in the legal profession? What can you do instead of a double blind experiment?
  
  
• 2. The NYTimes article says that "though male and female lawyers now start out with equal pay, an earnings gap opens in the first year of practice and widens rapidly." Why do you think this happens? What other information would you like to know?
  
  
• 3. How can you account for the differences in the two articles?
  
  
• 4. The NYTimes article states that the promotion rate among female lawyers has dropped from 15% to 5%, while the promotion rate among male lawyers has dropped from 21% to 17%. This is taken as a sign that things are getting worse for women. Why? What if the promotion rate among men had dropped to 5% also? Or to 7%? Or to 11%? What sort of drop for men would be equivalent to the drop from 15% to 5% for women?
  
  
• 5. Do you think that female lawyers are discriminated against? Is it possible to do a neutral study on this issue? Will men and women ever be equally successful in legal careers?
  

Homework for Monday, February 19th