You reel off how much passion you have for the firm, how you believe you will fit in very well with the other solicitors, how you respect their trainee recruitment because you understand how important it is to recruit the ‘partners of the future’ (when actually you hate it because it makes the process harder)etc etc. What interested me while completing these applications was how far one would go to get a TC. I am constantly searching for new ways to improve my applications to gain the elusive TC, and through many networking events with lawyers I found when talking to women the subject of babies always came up.
Now I am certainly no feminist, I hate them, whinging about the ‘glass ceiling’, about how porn is essentially abuse of women, how they are expected to become housewives. The basis of their argument is all wrong; why would you attempt to be equal to something you are so different to? However one conversation I had with a lawyer has always stuck in my mind; when is the right time to have babies? For some reason this stuck and made me think, has it got to a point where I feel like one of my unique qualities is that I am prepared not to have children to have a career? I am prepared to choose my employer over my ovaries.
I always joke that I would be the type of mother who would say ‘go and play on the motorway’, but the reality is if I am even debating this I would not be a good mother. Under the section ‘is there anything else you feel would support your application’ I am always desperate to put “I don’t want babies” , “I won’t take maternity leave”, “I will sacrifice my main biological purpose of being in this world”! I do however stop myself – they may think oh good she won’t sting us for flexi-hours, and covering maternity leave but she will need time off for being certifiably insane! Just how much do we need to sacrifice to show that we are different from the other 500-1000 applicants? When does the line need to be drawn, but how do you show commitment to your chosen path? I know I will regret it when I am lonely and old, and there is no one there to wipe the food away I dribbled or change me when I soiled myself , yet I would still say I am prepared to not have children for my career (and the greater good).
