Bar Codes

This book examines women lawyers' attempts to reconcile their professional obligations with other aspects of their lives.

Jean McKenzie Leiper is Professor Emerita at the Department of Sociology, King’s University College, University of Western Ontario.

Fiona Kay, co-editor of Diversity, Social Capital, and the Welfare State:
Bar Codes offers compelling insights into the balancing act of career and family among professionals, specifically how the careers of women lawyers are shaped, undermined, or even derailed as personal biographies confront rigid professional structures. Jean McKenzie Leiper challenges the elitist and exclusionary culture of law practice through rigorous and nuanced interpretation of in-depth interviews with over one hundred lawyers. This book will be of wide interest to scholars of the sociology of work and occupations, legal education, and feminist theory, as well as deserving of serious attention by lawyers, law professors, and law society and bar association leadership.