About
Film Details
Based on interviews conducted over two decades, Balancing the Scales is an insightful look at the story of women lawyers in America. The interviewees include a broad array of lawyers and judges across five generations, including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, and Roe v. Wade attorney Margie Pitts Hames. Interviews also include state Supreme Court and Appellate Court justices, women equity partners, minority women, associates, and students. They tell their own remarkable and often hilarious stories, from pioneers who paved the way for today’s law students, who don’t yet understand the difficulties they will face in the workplace. It explores how discrimination has shifted from overt to subtle, and why women are leaving the profession in droves. It highlights the deep cultural biases and the ingrained presumptions about both the “work” and the “life” parts of the work-life balance. Finally, the film explains why women being promoted to top positions is good for both society; and for firms’ bottom lines. We’ve come a long way since Gloria Allred marched into the Friars Club to protest its all-male membership policy, or since the Harvard Law School only had one women’s bathroom for two teaching buildings. But, as Ruth Ginsburg opines in the film, “We haven’t reached nirvana yet.”
RELEASE: 2017
Airing on American Public Television: 7/5/2017-7/4/2019
GENRE: Documentary
ORIGINAL FORMAT: HD
SCREENING FORMAT: Blu-ray | DVD
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 57 minutes
LANGUAGE: English
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Sharon Rowen
PRODUCER: Zac Adams
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sharon Rowen, John Klonoski
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Tim VandeSteeg
EDITOR: Sergio Valenzuela
COMPOSER: Cody Westheimer
NARRATOR: Sharon Rowen
STARRING: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gloria Allred, Jane Ginsburg, Lisa Bloom, Leah Ward Sears, Carol Hunstein, Dorothy Beasley, Therese Stewart, Bonnie Eskenzai, Hillary Bibbicoff, Eileen Matthews, Nancy Delaney, Michelle Parfitt, Mary Ann Oakley, Oni Holley, Nina Henningsen, Ellen Tobin, Julie Ferraro, Lynette Jiminez, Jennifer McCall, Caroline Elkins, Keita Rose Atkinson, Sheila Adams, Tanya Sehgal, Margie Pitts Hames