Women Lawyers Need Healthy Boundaries for Work-Life BalanceA career in law can be very stressful especially for women who want a healthy work life balance.
The vision, mission, motivation and drive that helped a woman graduate as lawyer can hit a roadblock as she navigates the entrenched structures of the legal profession, historically dominated by men. Women lawyers tend to be high-achieving Type A personalities, featuring some of the following character traits:
Depending on the kind of law practice, women lawyers may struggle to balance empathy and compassion with objective non-attachment and their need for challenge and confrontation. Pressures are External AND Internal Workload stress - intense pressure to produce billable hours, difficult clients, lack of control over the work environment, deadlines and schedule are common stressors. Pressures can also be self-imposed with lots of competing roles to juggle and a commitment to be the best:
Some of the same qualities that propel women lawyers to achieve success in the first place are what hampers them to find work-life balance when they start a family. The long working hours, competitive strategies and systemic gender-based discrimination, inherent in the legal profession contributing to high levels of stress contributing to an increasing number of women leaving the legal profession. According to the Ontario Lawyers Assistance Program, “lawyers have higher rates of divorce, illness and suicide than other professionals; are twice as likely to succumb to alcohol abuse; are three times more likely to suffer depression and other forms of mental ill health.” A question that can help the female lawyer focused on making choices that foster healthy life work balance is: What am I giving away in order to practise law? Monitoring and assessing workplace culture and how you feel about yourself - as a kind of self-care primer, on a regular basis, can be helpful. Stress takes its toll psychologically and physically affecting performance and, if left unmanaged, can lead to depression and burnout 7 Strategies to improve Work Life Balance
Insight and Perspective Counts
© By Julia von Flotow, Certified Life Coach, December 2010 Speak with Us Based in Toronto, Canada, KAIZEN Lifestyle Management works with executives, entrepreneurs, independent and creative professionals who are compelled to contribute toward developing a more sustainable world without forsaking themselves in the process. To learn more about how you can benefit from coaching programs and wellness services please contact us at 416 686 6463 for a offer a free no obligation consultation or
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