Women lawyers push for equal recognition and greater flexibility

Women lawyers in Western Australia are calling for employers to put an end to the inflexible work hours, lack of promotion and recognition and pay inequalities that cause many women to exit the legal profession.

Discussion about the issues facing WA’s women lawyers appeared to have fallen by the wayside, with the last inquiry into the reasons why women were leaving legal careers being conducted by the Law Society of WA in 1999.

More than a decade later, the number of women in senior ranks in the profession, as partners, barristers and in the judiciary still remains low.

The 2009-10 Legal Practice Board of WA annual report showed that the number of male barristers and profit-share partners quadrupled that of women and the number of male equity partners was eight times that of women.

Prosecutor and mother-of- three Catherine Fletcher said the issues facing many female lawyers’ needed to be brought back into the spotlight.

“It’s very hard to convince people to do anything about a problem without telling them the size of the problem,” Ms Fletcher said.

She noticed that women were tending to leave the profession after five to seven years to have a family, around the same time that their male counterparts were looking at promotional opportunities.

“Women aren’t achieving senior ranks at the same point in their careers as men. They are falling behind at a very early point in time, even before they decide to have their children,” Ms Fletcher said.

Legal Practice Board statistics also demonstrated that there were more women than men in positions below partner level and more women that had decided to stop practising law altogether.

“Approximately 60 to 80 per cent of women lawyers are below senior associate level and that’s tracking to only around 20 per cent becoming partners,” said Norton Rose managing partner Jenni Hill.

A 2009 inquiry by the Law Council of Australia established that pay inequity still existed in the legal profession, despite the implementation of anti-discrimination laws.

Women Lawyers of WA vice-president and solicitor Cathryn Greville said the disparity in pay between male and female lawyers could start as early as a couple of years post-admission.

“I know some firms look at the retention prospects of a person when they start, so when formulating pays and promotions they ask ‘how likely is this person going to be with us in five or 10 years time’,” Ms Greville said.

“So if you are a young woman, there’s always that concern in a partner’s head that you might decide to have children one day,” she said.

Australian Women Lawyers president Mary-Anne Ryan said perceptions of the capabilities of woman lawyers change once they return from maternity leave, which hinders opportunities for promotion.

“It’s very typical for women to come back from maternity leave to do very different work, because it’s perceived that they can’t cope with the work that they were doing previously,” Ms Ryan said.

Ms Greville agreed and said law firms needed to re-assess their attitudes towards women who decided to return to practice in the less profitable areas of the business.

“Often women will go into non-billing areas, such as precedents because it’s very difficult to be a part-time lawyer in the area in which the firm specialises. Those non-billing areas aren’t valued as much as other practice areas because they are not the ‘money making’ areas of the business,” she said.

Ms Ryan and Ms Fletcher agreed that women were less inclined to advertise their successes to the firm, often resulting in those successes going unnoticed.

“What makes a good lawyer needs to be looked at again, men are generally better at promoting themselves and women are often more modest,” Ms Ryan told WA Business News.

“I don’t think women ‘blow their own trumpet’ so to speak, they don’t advertise their successes as well as men and maybe women aren’t asked about their successes as much as men,” Ms Fletcher said.

Along with achieving seniority and adequate recognition, women lawyers often have difficulty in securing flexible work arrangements allowing them to juggle work and family life with greater ease.

Ms Fletcher, who now works part-time, said she experienced first-hand the difficulties of being both a mother and a lawyer, which forced her to change her place of work on a couple of occasions.

“You end up taking leave to cover your children’s introduction to school and consequently you feel like you’re not doing anything properly. You don’t work properly and you don’t parent properly because you are constantly torn between the two,” she said.

Ms Fletcher and Ms Hill have called for the introduction of flexible work practices into the profession, but insist that firms must review these practices on a regular basis.

“It’s not one size fits all. You have to look at the job and the practice area and come up with an arrangement that fits the circumstances and, as circumstances change, you need to update the model and make sure it’s an arrangement to suit everyone’s needs,” Ms Hill said.

“I know my needs have changed as my children have gotten older and employers need to be willing to frankly discuss these arrangements and review them periodically,” Ms Fletcher said.

She also highlighted the importance of flexible work arrangements for men in the legal profession.

“When some of the court work I do goes beyond 3pm I can make arrangements. I am lucky enough to have a partner that works flexibly and that is a huge asset to any woman,” Ms Fletcher said.

To further encourage promotion to senior ranks and recognition of success, Ms Ryan said the sexist attitudes towards female lawyers must change.

“Law is still a male-dominated culture and women either adopt that culture or feel isolated from that culture,” she said.

Women and the Law in Australia, compiled by a number of prominent female lawyers, stated that the Bars around the country had been described as ‘boy’s clubs’.

In addition, Ms Ryan said female advocates who displayed a ‘forthright’ or ‘dominant’ advocacy style were often perceived negatively by their male counterparts.

“If you are tough the chauvinists and sexists don’t see that as positive, they see you as a ball breaker,” Ms Ryan said.

“As a man you would be considered a go-getter and very good at your job, but if a woman conducts herself like that people see it as something lacking merit,” she said.

Ms Fletcher agreed that perceptions were important, but said flexible work arrangements were the key to more women staying in the profession, moving into senior roles and ending up at the Bar and in judicial appointments.

“We have spent so much time as a community to educate women to the same standard as men, so why would we throw that all away after five to seven years?,” Ms Fletcher said.

“The community has the right to expect that these women will maintain their professional working lives and provide a service to the community beyond having their families.”