Bar set high for women in law
IT’S been a 100 years since women were able to enter the legal profession. As we mark International Women’s Day today, Shelina Begum explores how the legal industry has changed and whether barriers are still preventing women from securing top roles.
A year after winning the right to vote in 1918, women were allowed to practise law. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 paved the way for women to enter the profession as solicitors and barristers in the UK for the first time.
Since then, there have been some pivotal firsts.
Madge Easton Anderson, a graduate of Glasgow University, joined the profession in 1920 becoming the first female in the UK to do so.
Ivy Williams became the first female to be admitted to the bar in 1922 while Rose Heilbron and Helena Normanton took the silk in 1949 and Elizabeth Lane was appointed to the High Court in 1965.
The last two decades also saw Lady Hale become the first woman Lord of Appeal in 2004, the first female justice of the UK Supreme Court in 2009 and the court’s first female president in 2017.
In Manchester, the city where the suffragist movement was born, women are also at the forefront of the legal profession.
But while women, according to the Law Society, now make up 50.1 per cent of practising solicitors, a century later, women still only represent 28pc of partners in private practice with the figures for equity partners even lower. Statistics from the Bar Standards Board show that only 14.8pc of QCs are women.
So while major steps have been made towards parity, the ladder to the top seems to be a challenging one.
Fran Eccles-Bech is the CEO of Manchester Law Society, an organisation she has been involved with for more than 30 years.
While she believes great progress has been made, she says law firms recognise that there is still a long way to go.
“I don’t think that firms need to do anything ‘more’ for women,” she said. “They need to remove the barriers and challenges that are there. The concept of meritocracy is, quite rightly, hugely valued in the legal profession.
“There is a prevailing view among many that no action should be taken to combat gender discrimination which also risks undermining the principle that employers should hire the best person for the job, regardless of gender or any other factor.
“Married to this is the belief that there is no ingrained ‘glass ceiling’ in law and that determined women with the right qualities can, and do, rise to the top. There are indeed many successful women in senior roles in the legal profession, from partners in law firms to QCs and judges.
“However, a glance at the statistics shows that these women are exceptions to the general rule, leaving the question: is structural inequality the reason that women are not making it into senior positions in anywhere near the same numbers as men? If so, this is not meritocracy.”
She added: “The majority of women would prefer to maintain their careers and a family if a structure existed that allowed them to do so.”
Hannah Cottam, director at Manchester-headquartered recruiter, Sellick Partnership, agrees.
“The law sector needs to keep up with innovative, entrepreneurial businesses which are embracing all aspects of life for employees – not just working life,” she said.
“Hours are typically long in the law profession which makes it difficult for women with families. And it’s not just for women – I’ve heard tales of male solicitors starting at 10am to do the school run but not finishing until midnight.
“The sector needs to allow a better work/life balance. There are disrupter law firms such as Gunner-cooke Manchester set up to offer a greater degree of flexibility.
“Bexley Beaumont, another Manchester law firm, is the brainchild of Karen Bexley and Anna Beaumont and the model is set up to empower lawyers to work in a way which best suits them and their clients.”
Cottam believes there is still gender bias when it comes to areas of legal practice.
“In London male and female lawyers are working in a cross section of practice areas whereas in the regions there tends to be a bit more gender bias towards women working in areas such as family law,” she said.
According to the latest research compiled by The First 100 Years project, a celebratory campaign to mark the year when women could first practise law, over half of respondents (54pc) said they receive encouragement from senior women in the workplace but that a failure of employers to accommodate the ‘realities of family life’ continued to hold women back.
Twenty eight per cent of women surveyed claimed they have considered leaving their job due to a lack of flexible working, while 39pc said their working hours were not compatible with family life.
The majority of respondents (60pc) believed that working parttime would impact on their career prospects.
Last year Dana Denis-Smith, founder of The First 100 Years, called for the introduction of quotas to help boost the number of women at the top of the profession amid growing frustration over the ineffectiveness of gender targets.
She said: “Self-regulation doesn’t work and will only take us so far. I believe change sometimes needs to be forced.
“I would like to see all parts of the legal profession coming together to work on this diversity problem. We need the legal regulators along with the Bar Council, Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives to form a profession-wide taskforce to come up with solutions that tackle it head on.”
Sally Penni is a practising barrister with Kenworthy’s
Chambers in Manchester and is the founder and chair of Women in the Law UK, a professional development and support body with more than 700 members that exists to address the gap in female representation in senior leadership roles in the UK’s legal sector.
It provides members with mentoring and guidance and has for several years held a successful programme of networking and career development events in the north west. She says the issue is not about entrance into the profession – but about progression.
“If you look at the stats, 52pc of those entering law are women and around 60pc of women are trainees, yet when it comes to senior roles such as partners and even more so at equity level, the representation is just not there.
“There are a combination of reasons. For example, we can’t expect women to have caring duties and just slot back into work, there needs to be more support around that. It’s also about confidence such as imposter syndrome which can have an impact on a woman applying for a senior role.
“We do have to acknowledge that there has been progression and if you look at Manchester there are some very high profile women who are judges, equity partners and founders of successful law firms, but in general there’s still a lot more to be done.”