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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 D E C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 7 F O C U S H R / R E C R U I T M E N T Cultural shifts Portland law firm Bernstein Shur is addressing those questions through evolving policies and practices designed to improve female attorney retention through the gap years and to eliminate any potential gender pay gap as new attorneys join the firm, says shareholder Joan Fortin, who is director of attorney recruiting. Fortin comes to the discussion as someone involved in a profession that tends to lose women. "Nationally, women are gradu- ating from law school and enter- ing firms in roughly equal numbers as men, but by time you get to the upper equity partner level, there's a much lower percentage of women equity partners," Fortin says. "I don't think about the loss of senior women attorneys as a discrimination issue — I think about it more as an issue that needs attention through policies and practices that will help law firms to create better work environments that will allow more women to remain actively engaged in the private prac- tice of law throughout the span of their careers." It's especially challenging to retain women attorneys who are new mothers and who aspire to make partner. "From what I can see, women still tend to be the primary caregiv- ers, even though I'm sure it's much more equal than it was in the past," she says. "at comes from at least two directions. Some of it is societal expectations, and some is that many women don't want to give up being the primary caregiver. I put myself in that category." It's difficult to maintain a work-life balance when new parents are also try- ing to become an expert in their field and develop a client base. "ere are a lot of demands on their time," Fortin says. "at's when we can lose people — male and female." To buck the trend, Bernstein Shur has taken several steps: It matches women attorneys with female men- tors whenever practical. It has adopted a progressive parental leave policy. And it allows for flexible work arrangements. e firm is also considering a policy that would allow new parents to bring infants to work during the early months. It's hard to determine the success of such initiatives, Fortin says. But the firm is seeing a cultural shift: "We have a lot of male attorneys taking paren- tal leave and spending four weeks at home with their infants," she says. "at wasn't even an option 20 years ago. Given the work culture at the time, I don't think men would have taken advantage of that. But they are doing so now. I'm sure there were men who wanted to do that all along, but it wasn't generally acceptable then." Every smile tells a story. And each one can say something powerful. As the nation's leading dental benefits provider, Delta Dental makes it easy to protect your smile and keep it healthy with the largest network of dentists nationwide, quick answers and personalized service. Learn more at NortheastDeltaDental.com. I GUESS THEY LIKE ME YOU LOOK AWFULLY FAMILIAR IT'S TOO GOOD TO PUT DOWN THIS IS FUN, I THINK C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » The wage gap T hough women in the United States have made gains in the workforce, differ- ences in pay persist. In Maine, the median annual income for women is 84% of what men make ($40,240 vs. $47,890), yet that is still good enough to rank No. 8 among states. Utah, a state that's often held up as a model of economic devel- opment, ranks second to last, with women earning just 70% of what men make. Women working full-time typically were paid 80% of what men were paid The gap was largest for Hispanic women, paid 54% of what white men were paid The gap grows with age: women ages 20–24 were paid 96% of what men were paid, those ages 55–64 were paid 74%. Although the gap narrowed since the 1970s, progress has stalled since 2001. At this rate, women will not achieve pay equality until 2119. Changes to close the wage gap include: Companies can conduct salary audits to proactively monitor and address gender-based pay differences. Women can learn strategies to better negotiate for equal pay. The proposed Paycheck Fairness Act would improve the federal Equal Pay Act with stronger incentives for employers to follow the law, enhanced federal enforce- ment and prohibited retaliation against workers asking about wage practices. S O U R C E : American Association of University Women (Fall 2017)

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