UK: Sixty-two per cent of women say gender has been a barrier to career progress

More than half of women working in the legal profession – 62 per cent – say their gender has hampered their career progress, according to research from legal and compliance recruiter Laurence Simons.

In contrast, 16 per cent of men felt their gender had ever been a barrier to advancing their career.

The analysis reveals that 21 per cent of partners at Magic Circle firms are women and 19 per cent of partners at Silver Circle firms are female. Overall, of the 1000+ partner profiles reviewed at leading law firms based in the UK, 20 per cent are women.

Research published by The Lawyer magazine in 2013 revealed that just 18.6 per cent of partners across the UK’s top-20 leading firms were women. These new findings suggest that little has changed over the past three years, despite Lord Davies spearheading the issue of gender equality in the workforce in the intervening period. Given it takes three years to boost the proportion of women partners by 1.4 percentage points, at this rate it will take 64 years for male / female representation at the senior level in law firms to be 50:50.

Despite these findings, most legal professionals do not think quotas, whether enforced or voluntary, are the way to ensure gender equality at the highest levels in UK law firms.

Most respondents – 47 per cent – believe quotas are ineffective and that other techniques such as focusing on flexible working arrangements, retention of top female talent and leadership development programmes tailored to women should be deployed.

A further 19 per cent of respondents believe that quotas are effective for increasing gender equality but, nevertheless, should not be used. Reasons for this position include the view that quotas are patronising, anti-meritocratic and discriminatory. A significant minority of lawyers – 25 per cent – advocate enforced quotas.

The attitudes of men and women in the legal profession differ when it comes to quotas. Forty-two per cent of women would want to see quotas used for ensuring a level of female partnership in firms, whereas this stood at just 16 per cent for men. Overall, neither men nor women are in favour of quotas for female partners in law firms.

Clare Butler, Global Managing Director at Laurence Simons, said: “Gender quotas are very much chicken before the egg and to truly solve the problem of gender equality in the legal industry we need to tackle the root causes of the issue, not just tinker with the results of a dysfunctional system.

“Key to overcoming the gender equality problem is setting up a forum in law firms, and amongst legal teams, where women feel comfortable discussing the attitudes and practices that might be holding them back.

“The women working in the UK profession are bright enough to be part of one of the best legal industries in the world, so let’s learn from their experiences and apply these to future generations and create environments women want to be a part of and excel in.”