But I am a feminist

This disturbs me. During our pretend client interviews in class Wednesday, both my TAs, my students, and yes, even me - the author of the problem for heaven sake! -- repeatedly referred to the "lawyer" in our fact pattern as a "him" instead of the "her" as written.

I mean, how is it possible, that among us -- students born in the 80s (more than half of whom are women), a prof who is both a woman AND a lawyer (just like the pretend lawyer in our problem), and a couple of TAs (one of whom is a woman) -- we can't keep it straight in our heads that the part of "lawyer" in our pretend universe is a woman?

If I didn't know the answer already, I'd probably fail the classic feminist joke. Aha - the doctor is the mom!

Taking the lead from this blog, I too blame the patriarchy. And frankly, I'm more than a little disappointed in myself.