“We have to protect the
EXPANDING THE NETWORKS Like
s d l
6
e s
Judge Vázquez, Teresa
Guerra Snelson, a civil dis- trict associate judge in Dallas, hadn’t considered becoming a judge—but for vastly diff erent reasons. As a fi rst-generation American of Mexican descent, Snelson says she wasn’t encour- aged to go to college but instead was expected to become a wife and a mother. She pursued a law degree at the University of Houston over her parents’ objections but says she was full of self-doubt. “I think it’s cultural to some extent,” says Snelson,
integrity of the law and that’s why diversity is important.
We all grow up differently with different burdens that make us sensitive to what other people go through.” —JUDGE MARTHA VÁZQUEZ
who is one of 60 women of color serving as active federal judges, which includes 33 African Americans, 21 Hispanic Americans, and six Asian Americans.5
“I came from a very
traditional family. I wasn’t raised by parents who thought about what I could achieve professionally. T eir idea for my future was that I would get married and raise kids. “I was discouraged from going to the university. My
parents thought I should go to community college, and they wouldn’t allow me to leave home. And the question was never when are you going to graduate but when are you going to procreate. My mother believes strongly that the maternal role is the appropriate role.” As a young lawyer, Snelson tried a case in front of a
female judge whom she impressed. Afterward, the two ran into each other on several occasions and volunteered for the same charity. When the judge told her about an opening on the bench, Snelson says she was taken aback. “I was wowed,” Snelson says. “I didn’t think I was smart
enough or capable enough to be a judge. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind. Judges were people I put on a pedestal. I never equated myself to them. It was hard for me to believe that I could be their equal, but when this woman thought I could be a good judge, it planted the seed. She was Asian American, and she was on the lookout for what she per- ceived as qualifi ed minority talent who were women.” Despite her success, Snelson says her family still doesn’t
wholeheartedly approve of her choice to have a career. At times, she says, the pressure from her parents has been over- whelming, particularly when she continued to work when her two children, now 9 and 12, were toddlers. “What I’m achieving professionally—I’m not being a good
Hispanic, because I work outside the home,” she says. “When I took the bench, my daughter was only 2, and I had immense personal guilt. With my boy, I worked part time, but when I got this post, there wasn’t going to be any part-time work. I had guilt that I wasn’t going to be the judge I wanted to be or
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the mother I wanted to be. But I want my daughter to understand that she can do anything she wants if she educates herself and works hard. I also feel strongly because I’m Hispanic American. I feel like I can serve as a role model to so many—to Hispanics, to women strug- gling to raise a family, to people who come from lower fi nancial means. I decided that those things didn’t have to be barri- ers, and when I assumed my judicial post, I knew I wouldn’t be the mom baking cookies or a
member of the PTA, but I decided I would be the best mother I could be and the best judge I could be.”
ANTICIPATING THE NEXT GENERATION For Leslie Kobayashi, a U.S. magistrate judge from the District of Hawaii, balancing her professional and private life wasn’t as diffi cult. She started a family late and had already established her career as a judge when her children were young. In an odd twist, delaying parenthood worked out to her advantage, but she watched as many of her peers worked hard to strike a balance between their careers and motherhood, often sacrifi cing one for the other. “T ese women were talented. Many graduated at the top
of their class. But they’d start a family and it was often too much to modify their home situation, so they’d work part time. And when a judicial position would open up, they’d feel like they didn’t have the experience necessary to be a candidate. So already you have a judicial applicant pool that is being self-regulated.” T e saving grace for potential women jurists, Kobayashi
says, will undoubtedly be the profession-wide call for diversity, as well as the growing number of women graduating from law school. T ey will be the ones dictating how the legal fi eld will change over the next few years, she says, primarily because women are often the top students in their class. “Corporate businesses and law fi rms that want to keep
the best and the brightest are going to have to adjust,” says Kobayashi, who recently took part in a panel discussion about the intergenerational workplace. “It will be a cultural revolution of sorts, because so many younger women are deciding that they want their cake and eat it, too.” D&B
1
http://www.albany.edu/womeningov/judgeships_report_fi nal_web.pdf 2
3 4
http://www.uscourts.gov/News/TheThirdBranch/10-10-01/Federal_Bench_Gender_ Snapshot.aspx
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/palins-e-mails-capones-safe-obamas- judges/2011/06/14/
AGhhlAVH_story.html?hpid=z10
http://www.the-exponent.com/2010/06/30/women-judges-womens-presence- how-the-inclusion-of-women-changes-things/
5
http://www.nwlc.org/resource/women-federal-judiciary-still-long-way-go-1 JULY/AUGUST 2011 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
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