Women with male names do better
Reuters
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What's in a name? A lot if you're seeking a legal career, with a US study finding that women with male names are more successful lawyers and judges than those with more traditional, feminine names.
The study, led by economist Bentley Coffey of Clemson University in South Carolina, looked at the relationship between a person's success in the legal profession, and their ultimately becoming a judge, and how masculine their name is.
The study found by hypothesizing and using a series of equations that a female "Cameron" is about three times more likely to become a judge than a "Sue," while a female "Bruce" is five times more likely.
"Despite the fact that women made up half of the students graduating from law school in the past 15 years, the legal profession remains a male-dominated world," Coffey wrote.
"Consequentially, one would suspect that having a male persona or male moniker might still be advantageous to a career in law."
Coffey and his team used data from the voting population of South Carolina state to test the so-called "Portia Hypothesis."
The thesis is named after Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, in which the heiress Portia masquerades as a male lawyer to argue before a judge the case of her husband's friend Antonio, saving him for the moneylender Shylock.
"The first female lawyer in South Carolina had a masculine name and today many female lawyers privately express their belief that their nominal masculinity matters," the study said.
It listed other factors that could contribute to the advancement of women with male names, including the small number of females in law firms in several parts of the United States and that more voters prefer men to women when casting their ballots for judicial positions.
"Jurists, clients, superiors, professors, legislators, might just feel more comfortable with a woman called "George" than one called "Barbara,"" the study said.
"In the context of the "good old boy network," which is alive and well in the legal profession a woman with a male moniker might just feel more like one of the boys."
Coffey told Reuters that his research has also affected him personally - he gave one of his twin daughters a traditionally masculine name and the other a traditionally feminine name. And initial results from a follow-on study show that women with male names are more likely to make more money than their more femininely named counterparts, Coffey said.
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It is interesting how many successful female media personalities have a male component to their name. Going back to Belinda Todd, the Malcolms, Caroline Ryan (late Robin son), Heather duPlessis-Allan, at a real stretch you can say Judy Bailey, Hilary Barry.
And that's just off the top of my head.
As an academic, it is somewhat frustrating to find studies such as this one making their way into mainstream media. You would be hard pressed to find results of this quality published in a reputable academic journal unless the issues examined presented a novel contribution to the literature (which this doesn't, the Portia hypothesis was not an original development from the authors).
Interesting in the article that talks about the female Beefeater... named Cameron! Thought of this when I read that.
@26 Because its a family tradition to have a Bruce in the family and she was unfortunate.
Question, why would you name a girl 'Bruce' that is probably as far away from a female name as possible.
from some of the comments posted, it looks like there are a quite a few insecure men out there who seem to think the only road to happiness is via traditional gender roles.
Ms Sosa, from the comments, the enlightened attitude towards women that exists in the legal profession does not appear to be reflected elsewhere....
So what is that woman in the picture supposed to be? Do they think she has a name like Bruce because she has short hair? What's with that? On a side note... I have two girls with two boys names. Nothing quite as masculine as Bruce however...
Well said, Kearin.
One should expect research into whether men who stay at home to raise their children and look after the home have a happy life.
I really like the name Kelly for a boy.
I don't think having a masculine name as a female lawyer in NZ helps at all - we Kiwis don't tend to have such a small-minded view on gender roles in this particular profession. But I do know from first hand experience that this (having a man's name when you're a woman) does help when communicating with lawyers from other countries where their views on women aren't as liberal as ours. It amuses me to no end to receive emails addressed to Mr Sosa instead of Ms.
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@ G. Rowler #25
*YAWN* at the overplayed fallacy that if men dont reject their masculinity they are insecure. Such banal ad hominem, whats worse is people out there actually buy into this! I once spoke to a male aerobics instructor about an upcoming powerlifting competition - his reply "why would you want to watch a bunch of insecure men compare p@#is size!"
I was too late to save him.