{"id":1333,"date":"2016-09-09T09:39:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T09:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/cannesagenda\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2022-07-16T06:53:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T06:53:59","slug":"elaine-ross-narrative-of-a-pioneering-female-attorney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/elaine-ross-narrative-of-a-pioneering-female-attorney\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaine Ross: Narrative of a Pioneering Female Attorney"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young girl from northeastern Pennsylvania who lost her mother at the age of two, Elaine Ross<\/a> loved to explore the woods, ride her Honda 70 cc motorcycle and listen to the birds sing. She lived alone with her father, and this young girl, who later became malpractice medical defense attorney, had to grow and navigate life and womanhood on her own.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Her father\u2019s death in her freshman year at Wilkes College in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania left Ross, once again, to take care of herself. It was in this moment that Ross decided that she would never feel this helpless: \u201cI was going to make something of my life so that I could support and depend on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She began thinking about attending law school and she went to a more challenging university, Temple University in Philadelphia. She received her bachelor\u2019s degree in 1981 with a major in Economics and went to the University of Toledo Law School<\/a> in Toledo, Ohio by Fall 1981.<\/p>\n

Her first day in law school consisted of a Contracts class, and Ross found herself \u201cintimidated and scared to death by the class and professor.\u201d She decided to \u201cmature a little more before attending law school.\u201d<\/p>\n

She worked as an Economic Research Assistant at Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and she attended Widener Law School<\/a> Evening Division since fall 1982.<\/p>\n

All the while, a new trend was emerging in the community of law. According to an article by The Atlantic<\/em><\/a> discussing women in the workforce throughout history, since 1983, just about the time when a young Elaine Ross was developing into the attorney she is today, \u201cthe percentage of lawyers who [were] women had risen from two to 15 [percent.]\u201d<\/p>\n

In the law school, Ross faced the backlash of the socially constructed workforce of the times. \u201cI learned for the first time that women were considered to be lesser than men. I was shocked. I remember thinking to myself in the law library that hell, I didn\u2019t even know any \u2018boys\u2019 who were smarter than me. It was very disturbing,\u201d but this was only the beginning.<\/p>\n

While working her first job as a law clerk, Ross was sexually harassed by her boss, a problem all too familiar in present day as well: \u201cHe told me that he needed me to accompany him to an accident site, I got into his car with him. He drove to the accident site, took photos and then we got back into the car. Instead of taking me back to the office, he took me to his house\u2014drove his car into the garage and closed the door behind it, trapping me inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finally convincing him to take her to the train station in order to escape, \u201che constantly criticized [her] work,\u201d and ultimately when she left, \u201che gave [her] negative job reviews until [she] sent him a legal case showing that [she] could file an action against him\u201d for his slander. This, however, was not the end of her experiences.<\/p>\n

While working at White and Williams, Ross saw another woman\u2019s years of hard work be marginalized in the firm\u2019s efforts to celebrate its first female attorney: \u201cIt was a woman who graduated from law school in the 1950s. She started off working as a secretary at the firm for many years until [it] finally recognized that Virginia Barton Wallace was a capable attorney. In the firm write up about her, [it] never mentions that she was hired as a secretary and worked as one for many years before being permitted to practice law.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ross, \u201cwomen have been marginalized in the field of law by being denied partnership, being given less prestigious assignments, less contact with important clients and less opportunity to practice law in the courtroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intimidation from opposing male counsel, clients referring to her as the \u201clady lawyer\u201d and judges consistently mistaking her male clients for attorneys simply because of gender showed her the struggles that came along with being a female attorney: \u201cAfter having won more than 30 medical malpractice jury trials over the years since then, I find that judges don\u2019t seem to accept my authority or opinion as readily as they accept the opinion of a man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, situation has \u201cvastly improved within the last 30 years\u201d. Nearly half of the attorneys in today\u2019s society are female.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0This changing narrative, according to Ross, is fostered by women\u2019s ability to enter the courtroom and rely on their hard work, skill and preparedness: \u201cMany male attorneys have grossly underestimated my skill as an attorney based on my sex only to find themselves at the losing end of the verdict slip. I guess what I am saying is that men getting their butts kicked by women in the practice of law is changing the sexist narrative more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When asked what advice she would give to women aspiring to follow her footsteps, she talks of persistence, belief in one\u2019s self, abilities and diligent work: \u201cA woman needs to know who she is\u2014see her strengths and weaknesses\u2014weigh them carefully, work hard and keep her thoughts positive and she will succeed beyond her wildest dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young girl from northeastern Pennsylvania who lost her mother at the age of two, Elaine Ross loved to explore the woods, ride her Honda 70 cc motorcycle and listen to the birds sing. She lived alone with her father, and this young girl, who later became malpractice medical defense attorney, had to grow and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1854,"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwomanfoundation.com\/davosagenda2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}