The Future of the Women’s Bar Association

In the early 2000’s when we both started practicing law, it wasn’t uncommon to be asked “What’s the point of the Women’s Bar?”  More recently the question of what is the point or the “value added” of joining any bar association is one that we keep hearing.  As members of the Women’s Bar, and as active leaders on its executive committee, we are invested in honoring the past of the organization while taking stock of current and future responsibilities.

We have both been practicing for about 20 years and in the past 20 years, the gender gap in pay has only slightly narrowed as the number of legal professionals that are women has increased substantially.

In 2024, women [still] “earned an average of 85% of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. In 2003, women earned 81% as much as men.”  The pay gap narrowed only four percent (4%) in 20 years.

Conversely, in the last 20 years that we have been practicing lawyers, the number of women in the law has risen dramatically – but that change was slow. The American Bar Association notes that for the first time in 2016, women became a majority of law school students, in 2020, women became a majority of general lawyers in the federal government, in 2023, women became a majority of law firm associates, and in 2024 or 2025, women will likely become a majority of full-time law school faculty members.

While women still lag behind men in their representation in positions of leadership in the legal field, in the judiciary, and as partners in law firms – progress has slowly been made.

Thankfully, in our state of Maryland of the over 300 state-level judicial positions (Supreme Court of Maryland, Appellate Courts of Maryland, Circuit Courts, District Courts), women fill approximately forty-seven percent (47%) of those positions. That is well above the national average. As a point of comparison, women comprise only thirty-three percent (33%) of Article III federal judges (as of August 1, 2024).

Another example of how Maryland is at the forefront in gender equality in the legal field, can be seen in the composition of our own WBA-MD Executive Board. Our board is currently comprised of six board members who head their own law firms, four board members who hold leadership positions in state agencies, and the Maryland Director of a large malpractice insurance company. The leaders in our organization embody the progress that we would like to see reflected throughout the legal workplace.

So now what? Particularly for those of us in Maryland, what’s next for our Women’s Bar Association (“WBA-MD”)?

As the number of women who enter the legal field outpaces the number of men who enter legal practice, the percentage of women in leadership positions at law firms has failed to keep pace with equality in other areas of legal employment.  Nationally, forty-one percent (41%) of practicing lawyers today are women.  Beginning in 2019, the number of women enrolled in law schools across the country exceeded the number of men enrolled and that number has continued to increase each year. The University of Maryland Carey School of Law reported that the 1-L class of 2025 was fifty-nine percent (59%) women. In January of 2024, the National Association for Law Placement announced that, for the first time, law firms reported that women outnumbered men as associates. That same year, 2023, when women outnumbered their male colleagues as law firm associates, only twenty-eight percent (28%) of law firm partners were women. The number of women managing partners nationally is only twelve percent (12%)! Similarly, only twenty-eight percent (28%) of governance committee members are female and only twenty-seven percent (27%) of practice group leaders are female.

Within this population of women who work at law firms, there are notable discrepancies between men and women in their reported rates of job satisfaction, feeling that they receive recognition for their work, and perceptions within the workplace of their own opportunities for advancement. Men report more positive feelings in these areas by more than twenty percentage points than their female colleagues.

The Women’s Bar Association seeks to address this lack of progress for women in private practice by creating opportunities for its members to meaningfully engage in mentorship, by promoting woman-to-woman referrals, and by fostering the development of leadership skills in our leadership pipeline, thus equipping them to become leaders in the larger legal community. The Women’s Bar Association has historically also been a voice in legislative affairs taking an active interest in laws that affect our members.

To address those needs, the WBA-MD provides mentorship opportunities at all levels. The Montgomery County Chapter provides mentorship to first-generation high school students who aspire to become lawyers. The Baltimore Carroll Chapter creates mentorship relationships with Maryland law students through their annual resume workshops. The WBA-MD and its local chapters aim to provide networking opportunities for members to create referral networks and help each other grow their businesses.

Working with other bar associations and joint presentation on issues is also critical. The WBA-MD is also partnering with the Maryland State Bar Association to present a CLE course in honor of Women’s History Month to be held on March 13, 2026. “Resilient Voices, Enduring Impact,” will feature a discussion about the continued relevance of gender and the law, domestic abuse, and provide training on financial well-being as well as networking opportunities focused on improving business and marketing practices. Opportunities like these are important in promoting women’s success in all practice settings and especially private practice.

Legislative issues continue to be a concern of the WBA-MD. We see it in the news every day, we see it in the cases being rendered in the highest Courts of our country- no time is more urgent to raise our voices than now. It is incumbent on women everywhere to challenge legislative efforts to rollback women’s rights.  Our annual Legislative Reception (held this year at Blackwall Hitch on January 15, 2026) provides our members with a forum for connecting with our state legislators in order to advocate for policies that are important to women in the law and women in the community as a whole. The WBA-MD is an important voice that challenges laws targeting reproductive rights, laws jeopardizing access to services for transgender women and girls, and laws attacking diversity, equity and inclusion.

WBA-MD’s membership is diverse and our members are male and female lawyers in both private practice and in government; judges and elected officials; and law school students. Our goal remains to create spaces for all of our members to come together to maintain the honor and integrity of the legal profession, assist in the administration of justice, promote and advance the interests of women engaged in the practice of law and advance the status of women in society.  At no time has this mission been more pressing, and more urgent than now.