The postpartum experience of female attorneys in South African Law firms.

Abstract

More and more working mothers are analysing their environments, processing what they observe and experience personally and are making decisions to either leave the workplace and become (i) entrepreneurs (Williams, 2001), (ii) stay-at-home moms (Elacqua et al., 2009), or (iii) move to organisations that are considered to be more accommodating of working mothers.

This research report aims to gain a much deeper, intimate understanding of the experience of female attorneys in South African law firms prior to having children and as working mothers, as the foundation for a better understanding of the career choices that they make. Fundamentally, this research report poses the question, “What are women experiencing pre-partum and postpartum, and what decisions are they making in respect of their careers in response to that experience?”

A themed content analysis was conducted on the responses (interview transcripts) gathered from 13 interviews involving 13 female attorneys who were working mothers employed in a South African law firm. The varying experiences of all of the respondents yielded a list of common themes and categories within those themes that provided an in depth look at what the pre-partum and postpartum experience of each respondent was/is and how the experience framed decisions regarding their career.

The most significant feature of the research was that there is definitely a distinction between the bias or discrimination that female attorneys without children in South African law firms experience compared to what women with children experience. The maternal wall is a reality and whilst women in South African law firms may not recall ever experiencing gender bias or discrimination prior to having children, having children has proven to be detrimental to a female attorney’s continued career as a practising attorney.

The other important outcome of the research was that there are not sufficient champions advocating the cause of working mothers, within law firms in South Africa. The senior partners who should be fighting to change the status quo have not accepted the challenge, leaving the more inexperienced, less powerful junior professionals to fight their own fight.