What women want: bridging the great divide
There is a great divide between the number of women qualifying into the legal profession as either solicitors or barristers (more than 50%) and the number who make it into law firm partnership ranks (in most cases, fewer than 20%) or as Queen's Counsel. Such a disproportionate attrition rate represents a huge waste of talent and money, and the picture is not going to change overnight. Where is the legal profession going wrong?
March 16, 2011 at 09:04 PM
5 minute read
There is a great divide between the numbers of women qualifying into the legal profession as either solicitors or barristers (greater than 50%) and the numbers who make it into law firm partnership ranks (in most cases less than 20%) or as Queen's Counsel. Such a disproportionate attrition rate represents a huge waste of talent and money and the picture is not going to change overnight. So where is the legal profession going wrong?
My view is that it boils down to workplace culture. Women want to work in an environment where empowerment and transparency are key values. Most importantly, they want to work for organisations that are willing to discuss the potential and actual barriers to their advancement and are willing to tackle them.
The greatest challenge for law firms is to create an environment in which all kinds of people, regardless of gender, disability, ethnicity, social background etc, can realise their full potential. Besides this being the right thing to do, it makes simple economic sense to empower your people to be the best they can be.
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