Millions of people across the country will soon betterunderstand the struggles that women lawyers face every day tosucceed in the legal profession.

Starting in July, more than 260 public television stationsacross the country will begin showing the documentary "Balancing the Scales," a film byGeorgia lawyer and filmmaker Sharon Rowen. American Public Media isdistributing the film to affiliates in all the major markets,including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta.Stations are allowed to play the show any time over the next twoyears.

The movie delvesinto how discrimination against women lawyers has changed overthe years, why female lawyers currently are leaving the legalprofession en masse, and which cultural biases about work andchildcare are still impacting women lawyers.

The hourlong film features U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth BaderGinsburg, civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred, former Georgia SupremeCourt Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, many other top lawyers andjudges, as well as young associates and even law students.

For 20 years, Rowen, who directed, produced and narrated thefilm, has been interviewing female legal pioneers for thedocumentary. It was a major victory to get distributionnationwide.

"It was completely driven from the ground up, and I just startedgetting calls from everywhere in the country, and one person led toanother," said Rowen, a trial lawyer at Rowen & Klonoski inAtlanta. "It's been a grass roots kind of thing and nobody has beenmore surprised than me."

The leaders of law firms across the country know they have aproblem with attrition of female attorneys, but they don't know howto solve it, Rowen said. Women make up more than 47 percent of lawschool graduates, according to data from the American BarAssociation, but they account for just 18 percent of equitypartners in private practice.

Law firms bring in speakers and consultants but have never had avisual representation of the problemuntil they saw Rowen'sfilm.

"This is like the only thing out there where they get afirsthand experience from all these women speaking honestly aboutwhat their problems are," she said. "It kind of lets the men in onthe problem."

She said she hopes that winning such a large public televisionaudience will enable her to make a statement about a wider societalproblem. Discrimination against women applies to woman in everyprofession and field, she said.

"Women are going to feel some common bond with it," Rowen said."The idea women lawyers have the same problems as everyone else interms of gender equality is enlightening to people."