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Quarterly Report: Saving for Retirement
We’re back again with another post on money! Before we dive in, can I tell you a secret? Before I got married, I used to tell my boyfriend (now husband) that because I was Latina I didn’t need to save for retirement–my kids would take care of me, obvi. Of course, I was joking, but the idea that family helps our viejitos is so deeply entrenched that I never really gave much thought about saving for the long-haul. But then as I learned more and more about gender inequity, the wage gap, and saw how poverty continues to afflict women, I realized that saving for retirement at an early age…
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Connecting a Cultural Divide, a Book Review
I recently finished reading Cup of Water Under my Bed (CWUB) and I highly recommend it! CWUB is a memoir by Daisy Hernandez, a Latina with a Cuban father and Colombian mother. A New Yorker who became a journalist for the New York Times before moving on to write progressive pieces with a focus on social justice. I became interested in reading CWUB just by the title alone. I grew up with Mexican culture/traditions, so when I heard, “cup of water under a bed,” I didn’t think of Santeria (which is the context of the title), but rather remembered my mom would cure me from Ojo and place a cup of water…
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Article Review: Women, Work, and Policies
I recently read this article by the New York Times that I thought required more than just a highlight on the monthly links post. The article is entitled, Why U.S. Women Are Leaving Jobs Behind. The author describes the difference in parenting policies enacted by the U.S. compared to Europe. This is always an interesting topic for me because I’m vehemently opposed with creating a façade that women have a choice, but really they’re arranging it so that only one choice ends up being the better option. The article discusses how the European policies seem to give favorable maternal leave, daycare subsidies, and higher protections to women once they have children. Whereas the…
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Responding to Performance Reviews
Having to sit in front of your boss and receive criticism, even if constructive, can be tough. Your ability to show that you can accept feedback in a stable, steady will help you move forward in your career, but it’s anxiety-inducing. It can cause emotional response that can affect your reputation at work. When there’s a face-to-face with your boss regarding your review, the key is to try to relax and go in with an assumption that this will be a learning tool. If you have moderately competent bosses then you should be aware ahead of time of any major issues. This really shouldn’t be a time with big surprises.…
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Happy Thanksgiving: Link Round Up
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We are on the mend of a really bad head cold (in fact, I just googled “can I harm my brain from coughing,” because this cough is still something fierce). But instead of wallowing about being sick, I’m trying to enjoy having time off work and getting to spend quality time with family. Though I know for many people it’s the beginning of high stress season with finals approaching. I mentioned on instagram that Thanksgiving as a 1L was so stressful and sad–so even though I’m sick, I’m still much happier today than when I had to work Black Friday and cram for exams…
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Culture Conflict: Being Humble
Being humble is often held up as a positive attribute among Latino families. How many times have we heard our parents or family talk about being humilde? Humble is defined as not thinking of yourself as better than other people. It is someone who is not proud or haughty. This can be a great quality and one that is definitely venerated by most of our communities. However, there is a second part of that definition that blurs the line and makes me call into question as to whether this quality is a trait that will help you succeed in your legal career. For some, being humble also means someone who is easily…
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Latinas and Political Representation
Midterm elections are finished, and after a few months break the big race to 2016 will commence. If you’re like me, you love political season. If you’re like most normal people—you hate it. Regardless how you feel about the systems and parties in this country, I want to introduce you to a new organization called Latinas Represent. A nonpartisan group dedicated to helping Latinas get in the game. Latinas compose only a little over 1% of elected officials, a dismal number. As we’ve mentioned again and again, all women’s issues are Latina issues and often it hits us even harder. So why aren’t we running to make things better? Latinas…
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When Family Obligation Become Obstacles
We have talked a lot about how to navigate the status quo within the legal community because there’s so much pushback from those already in power. However, we often overlook the pushback we receive from family/communities who fear that we’ll either abandon our connections or don’t understand the time and commitment needed in order to succeed. Now many of us would say that our families have always been our biggest supporters, but being our biggest supporters isn’t mutually exclusive from also subconsciously (or consciously) setting barriers in front of us. A few years ago, a study on Latino lawyers revealed that personal/family obligations were a big factor in derailing us from finishing/attending…
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Happy Halloween!
Ok how is October over? How are the holidays just weeks away?! I’m excited for the holidays, but I’m sure quite a few of us are feeling a little apprehensive because the closer we get to the holidays the closer we got to finals and other pressing deadlines. I remember barely enjoying Thanksgiving my 1L year because I had to work Black Friday at a retail store and then get back to studying. It was the worst. But things get better! That’s the great thing about the end of the year–it’s the start of something new! Speaking of new–what are some topics/suggestions you’d like to see added to the site? Any…
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Promoting Yourself in Performance Evaluations
Filling out evaluations is usually no fun. It can be time-consuming, anxiety-inducing, and can result in criticism you weren’t expecting. But some C-level executive decided evals were a good idea, and now most of us have to do it. Let’s just be happy that Microsoft’s former method of evaluating on a curve (!) hasn’t gone mainstream. When you have a chance to do a self-evaluation, it’s really important that you take advantage of highlighting your accomplishments as much as possible. The reason being that you’re likely the only one that is best suited to describe everything you’ve done well. Sometimes it’s difficult to do it, but we have to get used…