Despite the Increasing Number of Women Graduating from Law School and Passing Bar Examinations, the Proportion of Judges and Partners at Major Law Firms who are Women have not Risen to a Comparable Extent.

Question: Despite the increasing number of women graduating from law school and passing bar examinations, the proportion of judges and partners at major law firms who are women have not risen to a comparable extent.

1. The proportion of judges and partners at major law firms who are women have not risen to a comparable extent
2. The proportion of women judges and partners at major law firms have not risen comparably
3. The proportion of judges and partners at major law firms who are women has not risen comparably
4. Yet the proportion of women judges and partners at major law firms has not risen to a comparable extent
5. Yet the proportion of judges and partners at major law firms who are women has not risen comparably

“Despite the increasing number of women graduating from law school and passing bar examinations, the proportion of judges and partners at major law firms who are women have not risen to a comparable extent.” is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Parallelism, Comparison of two elements and Modifiers. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: C
Explanation: The given sentence correction question can be tested by the given-below rules:

1. Verb
2. Construction
3. Pronouns

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the subject matter of the sentence “proportion” is singular and it should be referred to by using a singular verb and not “have”. Also, “to a comparable extent” seems awkward and needless. In its place, comparably could be more suited. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because again, it uses “have” for the singular subject matter. Also, in this option, the proportion only compares with women judges and partners at major law firms, it misses the reference of women for partners. This option implies that the proportion is of all women judges and partners (male and female). So, this option is incorrect.

Option C: Correct
This option is correct because the proportion is clearly between “judges and partners at major law firms who are women”. It clearly specifies that the proportion is between women judges and women partners. Also, the usage of comparably in this option is correct. It does not look awkward or needless. In fact, it enhances the quality of the statement. So, Option C is correct.

Option D: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the word “despite” in the statement clearly brings in the contrast to the statement. So, there is no need for “yet” as mentioned in the given option. It looks awkward and needless. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because again, the word “despite” already brings in the contrast to the statement. The usage of “yet” in the option looks very awkward and redundant. The word is irrelevant and presents no extra clarity to the statement. So, Option E is incorrect.

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