Since lawyers were disproportionately male in the past, is it possibly because most criminal defense lawyers have years of experience (and many started out as prosecutors) and many female lawyers are just starting out (thus in DA offices) that explains this?
Yeah, the lower on the totem pole you get, the more women there are. For example in Biglaw, women make up 70 percent of staff attorneys, nearly half of associates, a third of counsel, and 15 percent of equity partners.
[1]. It's really no different in law than in any profession. Whenever someone says, 'gee why do we need feminism, women are equal already, look at how many are graduating from college', I think of this sort of pattern across professions.
