"They are testing you all the time": negotiating dual femininities among Chicana attorneys.(Report)

"I think they always want to see if you really are a lawyer ... they are testing you all the time."

--Yvette Garcia

A SMALL BUT GROWING NUMBER of Chicanas are entering highly prestigious and male-dominated legal professions. This relatively recent development raises a number of questions regarding their incorporation and mobility within this field. For example, how are Chicanas received by other lawyers, judges, and clients? How do Chicanas negotiate space in this masculine terrain? The experiences of Chicana attorneys are critical to examine in light of the growing need for lawyers proficient in the cultural and classed "ways of being" of Chicanos/Latinos, (1) immigrants, and other people of color who comprise a majority of those arrested and incarcerated in the United States. Meeting this demand, however, challenges law schools, law firms, and courtrooms to develop inclusive strategies within "institutions historically developed by men, currently dominated by men, and symbolically interpreted from the standpoint of men." (2)

In this article we present findings from a recent qualitative study of 15 "successful" Chicana attorneys. (3) These Chicana attorneys define success as "making a difference in my community," "empowering people and in turn, myself," and "having a balance between my career and my family." Our analysis of the ways that co-workers, supervisors, and clients "are testing" successful Chicanas' qualifications and legitimacy "all the time" reveals key mechanisms in workplace structure and interaction that reinforce racially gendered boundaries that contradict larger goals of social diversity. We also find that Chicanas who enter the legal profession aspiring to serve their community navigate across racially gendered worksites by developing a number of strategies including negotiating a distinctive Chicana practice and presentation of self, or what we term "dual femininities," as part of the process of becoming "legitimate" lawyers.

Dual femininities are enactments of a culturally gendered ideology and practice produced through a series of negotiations across class, culture, and gender systems. In their professional lives, Chicana attorneys are held accountable to white, middle-class femininities that are becoming more visible within increasing numbers of legal settings. Unlike white women, however, Chicanas are expected to adhere to distinct values and perform culturally gendered behaviors by their Chicano/ Latino clients. Dual femininities are thus ideological and dynamic gender practices that are produced contextually as Chicanas negotiate the "shoulds" of culture with the "musts" of the profession. (4) These racial-ethnic-gender practices represent one way to resist hegemonic masculinity in the legal profession.

How Chicana attorneys navigate across these accountability systems to develop strategies for acceptance and legitimacy in both their political communities and worksites is our major question. We begin with an overview of the location of Chicanas in law that identifies key workplace features that women must negotiate to survive and succeed in this highly competitive profession. We situate the concept of dual femininities within perspectives on gender as an active accomplishment produced in social interaction alongside of structural approaches that view gender as intimately tied to workplace organization and hierarchy. (5) We then provide a brief profile of the informants followed by an exploration of the ways Chicanas negotiate their presentations of self in the key settings of the courtroom, the firm, and the larger Chicano/Latino community.

LAWYERS, OCCUPATIONAL INEQUALITY, AND DUAL FEMININITES