• Tuesday, March 8, 2022
#BreakingTheBias – International Women’s Day 2022

On International Women’s Day, Helen Hogben, Employment barrister and Trinity’s Equality and Diversity Officer, celebrates the tremendous achievements of female barristers in the North-East and reflects on the challenges that lie ahead in ensuring that real gender equality is achieved at the Bar.

When I was first called to the Bar 17 years ago, my children were aged 4 and 3. My husband and I were both balancing looking after little ones with full-time working. It was a tough ride for a good few years and one to which I am sure both my male and female colleagues can relate. However, I suspect that only my female colleagues will relate to the following experience: “How will you cope with being a barrister and a mum?” was a question I was asked during pupillage interviews at a number of chambers. “I’ll cope in exactly the same way as any working dad” was generally the response I gave, silently hoping that motherhood wouldn’t prove to be a barrier to success.

Thankfully it wasn’t and 17 years later at mine and most modern, forward-thinking chambers, interview questions like the one above are simply not permissible. For the last 20 years, women have accounted for half of all new pupils, and policies such as those covering shared parental leave, flexible working and harassment (to name a few) have all helped to foster a welcome and inclusive working environment. We have a lot of people to thank for that – the women who patiently persuaded and brought about organisational change, their supportive male colleagues who just ‘got it’ and more recently, the #MeToo movement which has inspired women across generations to insist that the status quo simply had to change.

Women are now breaking down barriers in all areas of working life previously considered to be the preserve of men. In our own little corner of the legal profession on the North-Eastern Circuit, we have some stand-out women. HHJ Gillian Matthews Q.C. was Middlesbrough’s first ever female Q.C. and at one time was one of only two female designated civil judges in the country. Trinity Chambers’  Caroline Goodwin Q.C. served as Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, leading the CBA’s campaign in 2020 for government reinvestment in the criminal justice system, and in February 2020 Collette Price became the first woman to be appointed as Head of Fountain Chambers in its 50 year history.

So, given these changes, why should International Women’s Day still matter to the Bar?

We know from the recent Barristers’ Working Lives Survey 2021 that female barristers are three times as likely as male barristers to have experienced bullying, discrimination and harassment. If you are a female from a BAME background, the situation is compounded - female barristers from non-white backgrounds are four times as likely to experience bullying, harassment, and discrimination as white male barristers (58% and 15% respectively).

In terms of pay, the Bar Council’s recent analysis of Barrister earnings data by sex & practice area published in late 2021 found that in most practice groups, not only is the income of male barristers increasing faster than that of women but also the gap between men’s and women’s earnings is widening. For example, in the Commercial and Financial practice area female barristers in 2000 earned on average 49% less than men, but in 2020 that difference increased to 57%. In Employment, the gap between male and female earnings has increased from 8% in 2000 to 16% in 2020. In 2021, the Bar Council’s analysis of Criminal Legal Aid payments also showed that Black women were paid less for the same work. These are worrying developments and in analysing what they mean for the Bar, the Bar Council’s report posed the following obvious challenge: ”Women have accounted for half of all new pupils for more than 20 years, so we have to ask difficult questions about why so many women leave the Bar and why men continue to out-earn women.”

The uncomfortable truth is that the earnings gap is significant and is widening. The data is there for all to see – it requires analysis and where necessary, action. As my colleague Caroline Goodwin Q.C. stated in a speech to the CBA for IWD 2020 “We are all the poorer if we cannot nurture that [female] talent and ensure half the population remain properly represented from the junior Bar to the senior judiciary.”

Effecting change

The theme for International Women’s Day this year is #BreakTheBias. In the world of work, this means forging inclusive work cultures where women's careers thrive and their achievements are celebrated. Aside from being the right thing to do, it undoubtedly makes sound commercial sense. As the IWD Committee points out, any workplace that fails to harness the energy and creativity of its women is at a huge disadvantage in the modern world.

Rosanna Durruthy, LinkedIn’s Vice President for Global Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, has highlighted how important it is for both organisation leaders and individuals to actively work to examine and confront not only any potential personal biases but systemic bias too. Allyship and mentorship is a critical part of that commitment. As Rosanna points out “Women and underrepresented groups alone cannot solve diversity and inclusion problems”. They need allies and mentors at all levels of the organisation.

Ultimately, International Women’s Day should not simply be a marketing exercise. It has to be about more than X symbols on social media. Yes – we should celebrate the achievements of all of the amazing women we work with but that celebration needs to be accompanied by a commitment to effect meaningful change in our profession. The challenge for the Bar is how to achieve it.

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