Recruitment Practice and Women Lawyers' Employment: An Examination of In-House Legal Departments in the United States

Despite women's entry into the legal profession differences remain in men's and women's employment opportunities. This paper examines the way organizational practices affect the recruitment of men and women lawyers by comparing twelve in-house legal departments in manufacturing and financial services corporations. On the whole, women lawyers are less likely to be employed in the former. This pattern can be explained by the different requirements of each sector for specific legal skills and their recruitment of lawyers from various segments of the labour market in which women and men are differentially distributed.