When I was growing up my father almost always had a young lawyer from the firm he worked at under his wing. He'd even bring them by for dinner on occasion. The one and only time he mentored a young woman, well let's just say my parents put on quite the fireworks show and my dad quickly found a decidedly male pupil to share his wisdom and guidance with. As a ten year old, I kind of figured my dad was in the wrong.

I'm now 31. Last month my wife expressed her concern about the frequency of calls, and time I've spent, with a young woman who began working in my office last fall. My wife certainly did not have a problem when I was spending a good deal of time teaching a new male employee the ropes a couple years ago.

I can very much appreciate my wife and mother's points of view. I'm fairly certain that if the shoe was on the other foot I would feel the same way. But it has me wondering about the family dynamic and how it affects the glass ceiling.

Huh. Perhaps it is different in law, but in science mentoring is absolutely essential to the learning process, and most of my advisers have been male. The man who was my doctoral adviser is actually quite popular with women students, and this is hardly a problem for his wife-- perhaps because she is a prof as well and has her lab right down the hall from him!

Thanks for posting.

Anecdotally, I agree that this is an issue. I am a female law student currently interning at a firm. I feel a little uncomfortable asking too many questions of young male attorneys, not because I feel unqualified, but because I'm afraid I'll come across as flirtatious - even though that's obviously the opposite of my intention. Mr. Canuck, do you perceive such attention in this way?

I've taken courses in gender studies and language and attended an all-female high school where inequality was openly and frequently discussed. Because of that, my consciousness of others' perceptions is perhaps too sensitive. But I also have heard several times from other female students trying to connect with male professors that their attention was misconstrued. Maybe the women at the Air Force Academy are reluctant to seek extra help they need for this reason.

Johnny Canuck:

I can very much appreciate my wife and mother's points of view. I'm fairly certain that if the shoe was on the other foot I would feel the same way. But it has me wondering about the family dynamic and how it affects the glass ceiling.

You have hit upon a very important roadblock to women in the workplace. I worked at a firm where the (male) boss would not ride in a car with a female to a meeting. Nor were we allowed to go on business trips with him while our male colleagues were.

Women were discouraged from staying late at the office and if we did, another male employee was always pressed into service to stay late as well until the boss left.

He made it clear that it was his wife's request that he not be alone with a female employee. I don't know whether it was from a past indescrestion he had, or a past allegation, or just his wife's insane jealousy or what ... but it definitely held back the women in the firm. Since he owned the firm, we could not very well complain. Most women left, as I did, and the firm is 90% female.

Everyone in the office thought it was weird and paranoid.