The percentage of women at the bar has increased only marginally over the last five years according to new research compiled by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Bar Council and issued yesterday (22 March).

The Bar Barometer, shows women made up 34.4% of the practising bar in 2009-10, compared with just under 33% in 2005-06. In total there were 5,259 practising female barristers during 2009-10 compared with 4,814 five years ago – an increase of around 9%. In contrast the number of practising male barristers increased from 9,809 to 10,011 (just over 2%) over the same period.

While women make up only 34% of all practising barristers, they make up almost half of the employed bar – those working for a company of law firm. Here they accounted for just over 46% of barristers in 2009-10.

In contrast women accounted for only 31.5% of the self-employed bar, where there were 3,860 female barristers in 2009-10 compared with 3,543 in 2005-06.

The percentage of black and minority ethnic barristers has also failed to increase significantly over the last five years, moving from 9% to 10% over the period to take the total number of practising barristers categorising themselves as black or minority ethnic to 1,545 in 2009-10.

Other findings in the Bar's first annual statistical report show that the number of women called to the Bar in 2009-10 outweighed the number of men, with women accounting for 53% of those called to the Bar last year. Similarly black and minority ethnic lawyers accounted for 41% of the 1,852 barristers called to the Bar.

Overall, the self-employed Bar comprised 80% (12,241) of the whole practising profession in 2009-10, split across 734 chambers and 391 sole practitioners.

Commenting on the findings Patricia Robertson QC from Fountain Court, said: "Gender diversity at the Bar is a complicated question. There is research currently going on to identify why the number of women in senior positions at the Bar remains so low. We need to be able to follow cohorts through to draw secure conclusions.

"On a personal note, as a commercial barrister, you do need quite a lot of support to do what you do well. You don't want to be the one worrying about filling the fridge when you are mid-trial and you need to be able to afford flexible enough childcare to cope with the unpredictable rhythms of self-employed practice."

The number of registered pupillages has fallen in the past few years from 562 in 2007-08 to 460 in 2009-10 for the first six-months of a pupilage and from 567 in 2005-06 to 495 last year for the final six months, known as the second six .