As a female litigator I am frequently the only girl in the room. I am the only female attorney in my office except for a part-timer who generally stays hidden away and handles primarily transactional matters. Virtually all other attorneys and clients that I encounter are male. In fact, I don't believe that I have ever gone to a hearing or deposition where I faced a female opponent.
So it's always a bit of a challenge keeping up in with the guys' conversations. Lately the hot topic has been football and soon it will be baseball. I am not a huge sports fan, but I listen to sports radio in the mornings so that I can contribute something to the conversation, and I keep up with our local teams.
I went to lunch with several partners this week and the topic was movies. Guy movies. They spent a good 15 minutes quoting the Godfather (which I have never seen, because I don't watch violent movies) and then moved on to Star Wars (which I have seen because my husband is a huge Star Wars fan, but I do not recall the significance of Boba Fett's contribution and whether he was only popular because of his action figure).
So, ladies, how do you keep up with conversations in this male-dominated field? I'm sure they don't want to hear about how I am reading The Other Boleyn Girl (which is quite good, but is starting to drag it bit--I'm 3/4 through and just ready for Anne's head to roll), or how fantastic my new zen eyebrow threader is.
2 comments:
I went on a business trip with two male partners and myself back in December. One of the partners talks of nothing but golf and the world of sports. I keep up with pro football, kind of, and college basketball. I usually get bored half way through a season unless my team is winning. I try to read and keep up with the big news in sports, but I don't have cable television, so I can't watch or tivo sportcenter. I have found that if I can get him sidetracked about something that I can talk about, it's usually better. It's just unfortunate that there aren't more women litigating, it would be nice to go to a hearing and not get cock-blocked.
I usually talk news & politics with doods, but then again I usually work with people of the same political pursuasion, so it's not heated.
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