BOOK EXTRACT: Balancing Work and Life: A Practical Guide for Lawyers (part 1/2)

Balancing Work and Life: A Practical Guide for Lawyers by Julia Batchelor-Smith
LexisNexis, 2014
Paperback, $50 (available to buy online)

Chapter 24

Is law a female friendly career?

In the legal profession, female progression is a vexed issue. The statistics are well traversed and unfortunately, they point to a clear conclusion: too few women are reaching the top.

However, the reasons underpinning this critical underrepresentation in the upper echelons are not so easily decoded. We may know the ‘what’ - there’s no doubt that women are failing to move up the ranks in the numbers they should be - but we certainly do not understand the ‘why’ of this complex equation.

To compound matters further, there’s a lingering reluctance to talk openly and honestly about the issues facing women and the barriers to progression in what is still perceived as a very male profession. The reasons for this are not immediately apparent. Perhaps no one likes to think that they are inherently precluded from reaching the higher levels of their profession by virtue of their sex. Possibly, even raising the subject is seen as negative territory.  Or maybe if there is a real issue, it’s seen as career limiting to raise it.

On a positive note, there is a genuine desire to address the problem of women leaving the law and to celebrate the success of women who stay. Many large law firms now cite gender diversity at partnership level as a key concern. 

External awards such as the IFLR Australasian Women in Business Law Awards help to foster the progression of women by offering external validation of their efforts.  Law firms see this recognition as valuable, with the firms who secure such awards publicising those accolades widely.

The New Zealand Law Society has also recognised the importance of closing the gap between men and women’s progression.  In April 2014, the Society launched a project to support retention of women in the law, together with a portal on their website.

But despite these efforts, the conundrum of how best to achieve female progression still exists. It’s one thing to pay lip service and quite another to put words into action. For starters, there needs to be a tangible strategy to foster and promote female talent. But even with that commitment, there are practical hurdles too.

For example, in a law firm context how can the demands of the track to partnership - not to mention the demands of the job - be reconciled with the realities of life that often fall to women in the first instance (like child raising and the ‘invisible work’ associated with running a household)? 

Does the traditional model of progressing through the ranks in a linear fashion limit women, who are more inclined to take lengthy career breaks to raise children?  And are there subtler factors at play, such a the operation of an old boys network making marketing efforts and practice development inherently more difficult for female lawyers?