Review of The scales of success: Constructions of life-career success of eminent men and women lawyers.

Abstract

SHEELAGH O'DONOVAN-POLTEN The Scales of Success: Constructions of Life-Career Success of Eminent Men and Women Lawyers Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2001, 351 pages (ISBN 0-8020-8392-7, C$24.95, Softcover) Reviewed by ANNE MARSHALL Many writers have posed the question, What constitutes a successful life? Sheelagh O'Donovan-Polten has asked a group of professionals who are themselves seen as successful, describe what it means them. Her central research question How does a professionally successful, middle-aged Canadian lawyer construct success? An additional important question To what degree do such constructions differ by gender? The author uses the term life-career indicate that the scope of her inquiry is broader than simply career. The organization of the book is similar a research report. The seven chapters are divided into four parts. Part One provides a rationale for the research, background literature in adult development, career development, gender issues, and related areas, as well as a description of the inquiry process. Case profiles of the eight participants are presented in Part Two. Part Three includes a description of the 14 data themes, divided into common themes and gender-linked themes. Concluding propositions and implications of the research constitute Part Four. The interview protocols and other research documents are included at the end of the book. Robert Kegan's (1982, 1994) constructive-development model used as a theoretical frame of reference for the inquiry process. Kegan has described a comprehensive theory of the psychological evolution of meaning-making. He depicts adult development as a hierarchically organized series of alternating periods of stability and transition. Five balances (1982) or orders of consciousness (1994) represent interludes of dynamic development stability, during which assimilation of and accommodation new experiences proceed in context of a relationship established between the individual and the environment. Yet, each evolutionary balance achieved is only a temporary solution the lifelong dialectical struggle between two human yearnings - the desire for social connection and the desire for independence. O'Donovan-Polten adopted a phenomenological approach, employing minimally structured, in-depth interviews with her eight collaborative co-participants. She interviewed four male and four female middle-aged lawyers who were in private practice in the Toronto area. All were considered be highly successful according peer judgement and other external criteria. Each a senior-level partner in their respective law firms, and between 40 and 60 years old. In the first phase of the research, O'Donovan-Polten conducted what she termed a Kegan-style interview, the first part of which was virtually identical that prescribed for the Subject-- Object Interview (p. 22). Six 24 months later, she followed up with the second phase, Profile Review Interview, in which the co-participant's preliminary profile checked for accuracy, completeness, and confidentiality. In the third phase, she conducted a comparative and inductive analysis of the categorized and synthesized data. The eight case profiles presented have been personally endorsed by the lawyers, and are interesting read. Each has slightly different data category labels, reflecting the characteristic voice, including specific vocabulary, of each participant. The four male profiles are presented first, then the four female ones, in order to render male versus female comparisons all the more explicit and stark (p. 30). Verbatim quotes from the interviews are included in the profiles. Fourteen themes emerged from the analysis. These themes are presented in a fairly complicated graphic, representing a set of scales. O'DonovanPolten sought an image that could symbolize both the data analysis as well as a vision of human development that gender- and culture-sensitive. …