Found: A better role for our role-models.

Litigator Jocelyn Larkin has one advantage in taking on the army of men who serve as Wal-Mart lawyers in Bentonville, Ark. She's taller than they are. At 5 feet, 10 inches, Larkin, 45, is nearly as tall as the stack of binders marked "Wal-Mart" in her office at the Impact Fund in the Berkeley Marina.

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Where do you live?

North Berkeley, about six blocks from where I grew up.

Did that give you a feminist bent?

I'm one of four girls raised by a divorced mother. There was a lot of girl power in the house.

What does your husband do?

He's a lawyer for the University of California. His name is Christopher Patti. His main case is fighting Enron. Neither of us will get any money if we win.

How about your two boys?

They are 10 and 11. Apart from their passion for cars, video games and anything that will explode, they're budding feminists.

How do you know that?

One of them brought an assignment home that said, "Write a sentence about a promotion at Wal-Mart or Kmart." Something like, "Lettuce is 25 cents off." He wrote "Women get fewer promotions at Wal-Mart than do men."