While the barriers are steep for Black women in law, supportive networks and opportunities exist to turn obstacles into societal change.
Attorney Paula T. Edgar knows that barriers stand in the paths of Black attorneys, but she thrives on finding ways to knock them down. Her legal background empowers her to provide access for other people of color to become successful lawyers.
“It’s improbable that, from … being enslaved, [an African American] would then, centuries later, help make and shape the law. That is a miracle,” says Edgar, a consultant on issues of organizational diversity.
Edgar’s work focuses on changing toxic environments, such as those described by sociologist Dr. Tsedale M. Melaku in her book, You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism. The book examines the experiences of Black women lawyers in elite corporate law firms. Melaku relates those specific experiences to how race and gender play a larger, crucial role in the experiences of women of color in traditionally White institutional spaces.
“There is a moral imperative to this and an accountability that needs to be addressed,” says Melaku. “That comes out of having uncomfortable conversations about the status quo and maintaining the privilege that oftentimes is White and male.”
Barriers
Melaku’s book details how Black women in elite law firms are simultaneously invisible and hyper-visible. Their stories range from associates constantly being mistaken for clerical staff by the partners to physical presentation to the expectation that they recruit attorneys of color to the firm, among other issues.
