Retaining Women in Law...Why is it so hard?

In March, as well as International Women’s Day, Birmingham's very own Lincoln’s Inn held a dinner to celebrate 100 years of female barristers. As we celebrate amazing women that have gone before us, we are conflicted when we think of the struggles we face retaining women in the legal sector.

Despite 60% of entrants into the legal profession being female, 69% of partners are male and only 31% at partner level are women.[1] Following a discussion with current Birmingham Law Society President, Tony McDaid who is keen to look at what more can be done to achieve gender parity in our sector, I wanted to share some of the hurdles my coaching clients in the legal sector face, and talk about the solutions being put in place throughout our local based firms to address the balance and bring equity to law.

I am mindful that being a white woman from a middle-class background, I am limited to my exposure in regards to the challenges women face and on top of the two key issues addressed within this article, there are a multitude of other obstacles to be addressed, not least for women of colour, LGBQT+ women, women with disabilities or from low socio-economic backgrounds. I am privileged to have coached some incredible lawyers who give me an insight into their professional and personal worlds and the joys and challenges that lie within. Throughout my career, I have experienced the sad reality first hand of the authority gap, the gender pay gap, the maternity gap and women who are leaning so far in they are falling over! So, in January, I took it upon myself to speak to some leaders of the top UK law firms and get some insight into the solutions some of our city’s firms are offering in order to bring equity to our profession. For the sake of this article, I am going to look at 2 areas of focus based on the most frequently raised issues in my coaching sessions with male and female coachees last year- Career Progression and Life Work Balance.

CAREER PROGRESSION

The top reason for lawyers wanting to work with GuruYou? last year was career progression…and none of them were male. If you think the ‘old boy’s network’ is dead and buried, then think again. According to the Profile of the Profession report[2], in 2018, 145 women compared to 246 men were encouraged to apply/ invited to partner level. This outdated system clearly is not helping inclusivity and as the firms I spoke to have evidenced, a more rigorous approach to promotion is key to retaining women in law. If we consider as a given, that women are more likely to lack confidence or suffer with imposter phenomenon, then naturally they are less likely to speak up in meetings, assert their thoughts around career progression or ask for a pay rise. The horrific truth of the matter is that, as they have spent so long being interrupted, passed over for promotion then they truly don’t feel as valuable as their male counterparts. This is shocking when we consider that female law students in the year to August 2020 performed much better than male students, achieving a pass rate of 62% compared to 38% for men.[3]

Until we have true equity, I expect I will always be coaching women on how to overcome the imposter phenomenon caused by the lack of evident plausibility that they should be progressing in the way their male counterparts do. I can deliver whole workshops on how to have difficult conversations, negotiate, speak up, visualise, stay in the now…. the list goes on but rather than ‘fixing’ the women, what really needs to happen is change at a systemic level within our organisations. Shoosmiths Partner, Fiona Teague tells me that learning needs to be embedded early on, “Everyone needs to be involved so it becomes part of the culture…we need to be having aspirational conversations from the very start”.

Fiona also ensures that EDI is on her monthly team meeting agenda and there are valuable discussions around barriers to progress and solutions. Shoosmiths has a High Performing Women Programme for female partners as well as a Gender Parity Network -Balance- which arrange events around equity and inclusion such as EmbraceEquity for IWD and Menopause Awareness month with in-person meetings to build a network of male/female allies. Maybe like Shoosmiths more organisations could organise a reciprocal mentoring scheme where a senior colleague is matched with one more junior to facilitate open, two-way dialogue with senior leadership on EDI. Reciprocal mentoring has been highly effective in many organisations. Sir Nick Carter was serving as Chief of Defence Staff in a very male dominated environment and he had not one but two reverse mentors, younger and more junior than him who would alert him if he interrupted women or used inappropriate words or terminology. Being aware of our unconscious bias around promotion is the first step, correcting it is harder and needs support.

Male or female, if you are a leader ask yourself when your unconscious bias has got in the way of supporting female progression. Are you ensuring you encourage as many women as men within your team to invest in training or apply for promotion? Are you having those aspirational conversations and giving actionable feedback to women as you do with men? Do you have sponsorship or coaching programmes? Studies by Harvard Business Review and Catalyst show that men and women are far more likely to succeed when they are offered coaching or a senior level sponsor, though women are sadly less likely to expect coaching or sponsorship from someone more senior which lessens the impact for women. Do all women have authority in your meetings or are they interrupted or questioned more than their male counterparts? These questions are for all of us, studies show that women are also more likely to favour men for promotion, accept their opinion more readily and listen more intently. Such is our unconscious bias.

Quite often, the salary of partner is not advertised. ONS figures in 2021 showed a 15% pay gap by the time women reached 40+ in comparison to only 1% for women up to the age of 29, quite telling statistics when you consider the average age of a parent. Sometimes women garner the courage required to influence gender parity, but it involves risk. One of my female clients, a single mum and director knew she should get more, even though her self-doubt was fighting against her speaking up. “I worked harder than my male counterpart, in addition to my chargeable targets I was head of EDI, responsible for the graduate programme, and part of several other committees and yet I get paid significantly less. I spoke to my boss twice and it felt really uncomfortable as he clearly was not in favour of the recompense I felt I deserved. In the end I knew I had to get this and decided I would leave unless I was paid what I wanted. I got the sum I had asked for, I still think it’s less than my colleague, but I am happy as it will help me feel better about the long hours for sure!”

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

According to the 2018 Profile of the Profession report 83% of respondents felt that women leave the profession in their 30s and 40s for a better work-life balance elsewhere.

My own research echoes this- I interviewed 26 coachees myself last year and 53% wanted coaching support around supporting co-dependents and achieving work life balance. Of the 53% only 7% were male. According to the same paper conducted by the Law Society of Scotland, only 9% of male lawyers take time off work when a child is ill, compared to 49% of female lawyers. It can’t be a coincidence that the age women are leaving the profession is around the average age of childbirth. The recent Career After Babies report[4] identified that the number of female managers drops by 32% after having children indicating a lack of adequate support and contact before, during and after maternity leave. Recent positive developments for future parents mean that from April 2024, working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free care from April 2024, and yet in the UK this will still equate to 24% of an average income. ?Is your organisation having the gritty conversations about care and support, the cost of childcare and how to progress in a career by overcoming the challenges that running a family can bring? Open discussions and true flexibility are key to retaining parents who are primary carers in the sector. This is a key time for life decisions and whilst we don’t want to place undue pressures on employees, we shouldn’t assume that because they have had a baby or a life changing event, that they want progress to be ignored.

John Worrall, Head of Learning and Development at Trowers & Hamlins explained that they offer coaching for returners as well as training for leaders to support those aspirational career conversations which are paramount to success following long term leave. In addition to this, there is no “up or out” policy, giving freedom for those who wish to remain at their chosen career level to do so.

Are you making sure your employees know about Shared Parental Leave? Only 2% of eligible couples made use of shared parent leave (SPL) last year, according to research by law firm EMW based on HMRC figures. If more men felt it was acceptable to take SPL, surely that would impact the amount of women leaving the profession.

In addition to the challenges a full-time role presents we know the vast majority of law workers are working beyond their contracted hours. Naomi Pryde, Scottish Lawyer of the Year 2021 is a parent who believes that the metrics that law firms use, particularly chargeable hours etc don’t favour women. “Women are more likely to under record their chargeable hours in the first place due to a lack of confidence, they are also more likely to do work that is non chargeable but very important to a law firm (though can be difficult to measure), eg mentoring, CSR, pro bono etc.” CSR work enhances the nature of the workplace, reduces attrition and attracts high calibre candidates to the organisation yet it largely remains unrewarded. Citizenship is left to the conscientious in addition to chargeable hours for the benefit of the organisation and to boost careers mostly by women when they could well do with reducing hours due to commitments outside of work. Meanwhile, male counterparts (with often less commitment outside the workplace) fly past them on the corporate ladder without taking part in such committees! Catherine Edwards, chair of the EDI committee at Keele University and Clare Collins, Head of Learning and Development, DWF both agree we need a balanced score card to address CSR and that citizenship must be a requirement for getting ahead well before partner level. If CSR initiatives are represented fairly this not only shares the responsibility to further the wellbeing and future of the firm but then all genders are represented to mirror society, after all we want diversity in our committees! At Trowers and Hamlins, path to partner for those showing potential takes 2 years and depends on assessment of inclusive leadership and CSR initiatives as well as financial and technical metrics ensuring that there is motivation for all to engage in non-promotable activities.

Whatever they are doing is working as Trowers are within the top 5 law firms in the country with the most female equity partners (38.8%)[5].

If women are spending more time on non-promotable activity, that leaves even less time for business development which is financially rewarding. Many of the mothers I speak to are asked to build their profile and client portfolio with no consideration for when they will be able to do it. “I am frightened I can’t have it all.” One client told me “I literally have to choose every night if I want to see my children or please my boss. The firm say they embrace EDI but there is no evidence of them considering my needs or that of my family. The only women I see at the top are not a primary carer.” What could your organisation do to support work life balance and business development? Do networking events have to be in the evening? … how about breakfast events? Lunch time networking? How about non-alcoholic solutions to networking so we can be more inclusive to men and women who cannot attend such events for personal or religious reasons?

Another way to support work life balance by acknowledging non billable hours is a little more challenging in our sector but nonetheless has been achieved by the firm with the highest percentage of female partners in the UK.

As part of its “Flexible by Choice” initiative, in 2021 Irwin Mitchell who have more female than male partners, personalised billable targets.[6] The Lawyer reported that the initiative ?considers personal circumstances, role responsibilities, and the kind of activity being recorded. For people with caring responsibilities, personal challenges or non-fee earning activities this must enable a real sense of empowerment and achievement leading of course to retention!

Of course, I could aim, with my esteemed advisors to fill a book with ideas and solutions on how we could retain women in law. In the space afforded here, I have looked at only two areas of concern for women in the work place; career progression and work life balance. In short, it seems that creating space within firms to have open and honest dialogue around meeting the career aspirations of women is key. We know that coaching and sponsorship is a powerful way to offer unbiased support to reduce Imposter Phenomenon and self-doubt that is exacerbated when we fail to see balanced leadership teams.

We mustn’t shy away from difficult conversations around work life balance and the challenges that co-dependants, young and old, can place upon an employee.

If you are an employee reading this, know you have a choice of where to work and with whom. If you are a leader, know you have a responsibility to ensure your workplace is diverse and reflects the society it serves. In discussion with Sarah Walker Smith, CEO of Ampa, she reminds me that ED&I cannot be formulaic, leaders need to build ED&I into the culture of the organisation, reward words and actions and be prepared to let people go if they cannot support your goals for gender parity.

No matter who you are reading this, we can all call out poor behaviour, we can all be allies. What action have you taken as a result of an event or article that inspired you on International Women’s Day? Why not encourage your firm to sign up to the Women in Law Pledge? Details can be found at www.lawsociety.org.uk Imagine if every Birmingham Firm signed up to this pledge supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the profession by focusing on retention and promotion opportunities, setting clear plans and targets around gender equality and diversity for our organisations…

Surely that would be a great start to retaining women in law.

If you would like to know more about the research or any of the support we can offer your employees, do not hesitate to get in touch…we would love to hear from you.

[1] Women in the place 2022- Mckinsey & Company

[2] 2018 Profile of the Profession report- Law Society of Scotland

[3] SRA Report

?https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/lpc-pass-rate-holds-up-despite-pandemic

[4] Career After Babies -That Works for Me

[5] https://www.law.com/international-edition/2022/05/27/the-best-law-firms-for-female-equity-partners-2022/

[6] https://www.thelawyer.com/irwin-mitchell-scraps-chargeable-hours/