Elle Woods, Alexandra Cabot, & Casey Novak: Why We Love Women Lawyers On-Screen, But Not On Scene

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Women now make up more than half of all law students in the U.S.! Women are outnumbering men in law schools! Female law graduates are entering the workforce at record rates! 

So why, then, are there still barriers making it harder for women to thrive in the legal world? Why are women so underrepresented in leadership and partnership roles? We celebrate fictional women lawyers while real ones keep hitting the same old roadblocks.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg would be so disappointed (kidding…sort of).

Seriously, though, we love to watch women like Elle Woods (Legally Blonde), Alexandra Cabot (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and Casey Novak (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) dominate the courtroom on-screen. But in real life, the attitude toward female lawyers looks a little different. Turns out, it’s a lot easier to root for women in court when they look as good as Reese Witherspoon and Stephanie March.

Elle Woods, played by actress Reese Witherspoon, physically fulfills the stereotypical female lawyer archetype. Her blonde hair isn’t what makes her the underdog audiences root for; her open-armed embrace of femininity and intellect complete the epic “girl-power” storyline without losing the support of the audience. 

Alexandra Cabot, played by Stephanie March, is the steely, sexy female prosecutor that stops at nothing but a guilty verdict. She seeks justice unflinchingly even when it costs her personally, and later becomes disillusioned with the legal system after seeing how many women she tries to protect have fallen through the cracks. 

Casey Novak, played by Diane Neal, meets Cabot where she is and embodies the huskily-voiced, sharp-tongued new-comer to the craft with moral grey areas to match her courtroom confidence.

Audiences love these women. They’re confident, competent, sexy, and relatable; they’re aggressive at their job…but not too aggressive; they’re not bitchy. 

So, what gives?

In real life, the female lawyers who display these same traits are often interrupted, underpaid, and overlooked.

The reality is while the American Bar Association (ABA) predicted that the 2010s and 2020s will be the “Decade of the Female Lawyer,” law is a male-dominated field. Men continue to fill most of the “upper echelons of the legal profession” from federal judgeships and state supreme courts to law firm partnerships and corporate leadership positions.

According to the ABA, ”There are still many more male lawyers than female lawyers in the United States.” 

That imbalance isn’t inherently mal-intended or part of some sinister psy-op designed to keep women down (some fields simply shift more slowly than others), but the culture it creates shapes women’s day-to-day workplace interactions in more than just the legal field, and perpetuates the rarity of women in the ‘upper echelons’ until it becomes the standard practice. 

Gender bias and discrimination remain persistent obstacles contributing to the issue. Harmful stereotypes, unequal opportunities that would lead to the ‘upper echelons,’ and the assumption that a woman’s obligations will make her eventually ‘step back’ for family, all reinforce outdated expectations. Elle Woods fought those stereotypes, and we all root for Cabot and Novak to convict the criminal while keeping their iconic stoic composures, but admitting that the same attitudes we cheer for in fictional female lawyers would realistically get a woman labelled as “too aggressive” is a more uncomfortable truth to sit with.

A study conducted by Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program revealed that the relationship between “gender,” “displays of emotion,” and “internal and external interpretations for emotional reactions,” affected a professional woman’s “perceived confidence” and “status in the professional context” (Brescoll, Uhlmann).

In other words, female lawyers walk the fine line between embodying the calculating nature of the legal profession with the traditional stereotypes attached to women from the days of yore and beyond. A male-dominated field, not surprisingly, stagnates female lawyers. 

When the credits roll, women in real life still have to work twice as hard as their on-screen counterparts. Women shouldn’t have to keep proving that their femininity can and does coexist with ambition or confidence, but that’s life.

So, what am i supposed to do?!

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Legally Blonde helped normalize women in positions of power for a generation of viewers. These characters inspired and continue to inspire girls to picture themselves in the courtroom or as leaders in the field. But the goal isn’t just to admire women in power as if it is some abstract thought or fictional narrative created solely by a television show. 

The goal is to inspire women to enter the field and give them the confidence to succeed in the field. 

How can you help the girlies? Talk with your friends! Talk with your family! Talk with your colleagues! Law isn’t the only field where women encounter obstacles. What does it say about our society that the skyrocketing admission and enrollment rate of women into law school (and other institutions) isn’t met with equal fervor post-graduation? 

We’ve seen women lawyers conquer the courtroom on-screen. Now, it’s time we help them do the same on scene.

Further reading:

“Women in the Legal Profession.” American Bar Association, 2024. https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/women/.

Brescoll, Victoria  L, and Uhlmann, Eric Luis. “Can An Angry Woman Get Ahead?: Status Conferral, Gender, and Expression of Emotion in the Workplace.” Gender Action Portal, 2008. https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/can-angry-woman-get-ahead-status-conferral-gender-and-expression-emotion-workplace. 

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