If you think the gender divide is shrinking among younger partners, you should check out The American Lawyer's first-ever survey (subscription required) of new partners. Frankly, I was astounded by how the two sexes differed on their views about client development, partnership grooming, money, and the future.

Before I pile you with a lot of numbers from the survey, let me give you the skinny: Women tend to be a bit darker in their outlook. For a sizable chunk of them, the fun of being a new partner seems to have already vanished—almost a quarter of the women (versus 15 percent of the men) rated their partnership experience as being “more difficult than I expected.”

But let's start with the positive news first: Women seem to be finally discarding the good- girl syndrome—that is, the belief that if they just work really, really hard, Prince Charming will come along, propose partnership, and everyone will live happily forever in a bed of profits. Instead, women are counting on developing their own book of business as the ticket to security.

I don't think many people—men or women—are counting on a lasting union these days. But it's  refreshing that these newbie female partners are aggressively chasing business. In fact, they seem more eager than the men. According to the survey, over 81 percent of female partners say they've stepped up their business efforts since their elevation, compared with just under 75 percent of the men. Even more encouraging, women are getting more support from their firms than the men on this front: Nearly 68 percent reported that they have a budget for professional development, versus 55 percent of the men.

Great news for women, right? Well, here's the snag: Women already are getting discouraged about their efforts. Here's the most glaring gender gap in the survey: Over 30 percent of the men but only 9 percent of the women said they were "very satisfied" with their business development responsibilities. Moreover, almost 11 percent of women and only 3 percent of the men said they were "not at all satisfied" in answer to the same question.

The survey doesn't tell us what "satisfaction" means—is it that they're not spending enough time on biz development, or that they're not getting enough support, or that they are not seeing results? In any case, though, the upshot is that women are considerably more unhappy with their efforts than men. Not a promising outlook for a long and vibrant career.

In my next post, I'll look at some of the possible reasons for this doom and gloom. In the meantime, how do you account for this rather sad state of affairs?

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