BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING

FEMALE PROFESSIONALS TALK ABOUT GENDER CHALLENGES IN THEIR FIELDS By Jenny Fisher â?¢ LISA SOKOLOFF, a litigation attorney with Fabiani, Cohen & Hall, LLP, is outgoing president of the New York Women's Bar Association. In November, she presented the results of the association's first annual survey on female lawyers in Manhattan. What's the most difficult thing about being a woman in your field? "Women encounter glass ceilings in my profession," Sokoloff says. The New York Women's Bar Association's survey showed that "while women are close to 50 percent of incoming associates, they are a small percentage of those who become partners and there are few female managing partners. Somewhere along the road it is difficult to get those financially rewarding spots. One of those may be difficulties may be rainmaking, which is getting clients." Asked why rainmaking might be particularly difficult for women, Sokoloff says she doesn't know. "It may just be that places where men connect are not places women frequent, like golf courses and bars. There may be completely different reasons, such as women not giving business to women," she says. "I think if we knew why, women on the whole would be successful." From a policy or legal perspective, is there something you'd like to change to give women more equal footing? "I personally would like to see the Equal Rights Amendment passed," Sokoloff says. "But beyond that I think there are lots of good policies and laws out there, it's just they're hard to enforce. And a lot of people don't try to enforce them, even if their rights have been infringed upon." Are you optimistic about positive change for women in your profession? Sokoloff says Rep. Carolyn Maloney's book is an example of the kind of work that makes her optimistic. "I think when we bring things to the attention of the public, they're more vigilant. A lot of women don't know what my generation went through and what my mother's generation went through. They've never had to face some of the overt discrimination we've faced and don't realize that work still needs to be done," Sokoloff says. "While women are getting the opportunities in certain areas, I think it's because of the work of our foremothers and I think it's important that we continue to work." â?¢ DEPUTY INSPECTOR KATHLEEN O'REILLY, commanding officer of the 24th precinct, is one of two female commanding officers in New York City's 76 precincts. As someone who grew up watching Cagney and Lacey, a TV show about two female detectives in New York, O'Reilly says she feels lucky "to do the job I always wanted to do." She has been on the police force for 17 years. What's the most difficult thing about being a woman in your field? "I don't think there's anything difficult about being a woman in the police department. I don't feel any challenge faced by a female can't be overcome." Are there things that have improved for women since you entered your field? "When women first went on patrol, many of the wives of the patrolmen didn't want them riding in the car with a female partner." Now, she explained, there are so many women on the police force that it's not uncommon to have two female partners. O'Reilly added that the locker rooms for women have also improved. In the police force, each rank usually has a separate changing room. Twenty years ago, there were so few women that all ranks had to share a locker room. Now, with more women in the force, O'Reilly says most precincts have separate facilities for female officers of different ranks, although that's not always the case in smaller precincts. Was there a time when you felt your gender was a disadvantage? "I really don't feel it. I've always been motivated to get the job done. That could be one potential weakness for other female members. I have a tendency to overachieve at what I do. I raise the bar about 10 percent higher than my male companions." â?¢ REBECCA CHARLES is owner and executive chef of Pearl Oyster Bar in Greenwich Village. She opened her restaurant in 1997 with the help of a $60,000 Small Business Administration loan and investments from her mom, a friend and a line cook who had worked for her. Charles says the restaurant business is "really hard, dirty, laborious grunt work," but after 32 years she still loves what she does. What's the most difficult thing about being a woman in your field? "Hormones," Charles says. "I think it's pretty self-explanatory, don't you?" [caption id="" align="alignright" width="288" caption="Rebecca Charles"][/caption] Are there things that have improved for women since you entered your field? Are there things that have remained the same? When she took her first job in a kitchen in 1976, Charles says there were few other women. "Now there's not as many as I would like to see in the kitchen on the hot line," she says, though in the West Village, she estimates, "there are probably more women chefs per capita than in the rest of the country." Some things have definitely not changed for women in the business. "Top of the list would be the pay scale," Charles says. "I think women chefs make considerably less than men do as executive chefs and I think women are offered less executive chef positions than men." Was there a time when you felt your gender was a disadvantage? "Yes, there was a time, but it was so long ago I can hardly remember it," says Charles. "When I was starting out, I felt that my gender was a problem every time I turned around. After 10 or 15 years, I just stopped thinking about it, because you know what? There's work to do." Responses have been edited for style and brevity. [OLD BOYS' CLUB]