Women Solicitors as a Barometer for Problems within the Legal Profession – Time to Put Values before Profits?
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| Author | Lisa Webley,Liz Duff |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2007.00397.x |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 34, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 2007
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 374±402
Women Solicitors as a Barometer for Problems within the
Legal Profession ± Time to Put Values before Profits?
Lisa Webley* and Liz Duff*
This article will consider the theoretical explanations for why women
are not remaining within and progressing through the ranks of the
solicitors' profession in England and Wales. It sets out the findings from
a Law Society commissioned project to examine the reasons why women
have had a break from practice or chosen to leave the profession.
Finally, it considers whether one of the purported strategies used to
empower women solicitors ± the business case for equality of oppor-
tunity in the solicitors' profession ± is actively working against women
and the profession (more broadly), and that only a return to a wider
values-based approach to professional identity will meet the criticisms
raised by many of the women who participated in this research.
INTRODUCTION
The Law Society remains concerned about the rate at which and the reasons
why women continue to leave the profession pre-retirement in relatively
large numbers. The debate is wide ranging, covering issues from whether
women should attempt to `have it all' by combining a legal career with
motherhood, to why there is a differential in promotion rates to partnership
between male and female solicitors.
1
Even after three studies undertaken by
374
ß2007 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2007 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
* School of Law, University of Westminster, 4 Little Titchfield Street, London
W1W 7UW, England
webleyl@westminster.ac.uk duffl@westminster.ac.uk
We would like to thank Professor Andy Boon and the three reviewers who commented on
an earlier draft of this article, as well as Professor John Flood for his helpful suggestions
on a later draft.
1There is also much debate in the legal professional press. For an illustration of the
competing views see: `Having it All?', Letter to the Editor, Law Society Gazette,31
July 2003, at 16; `Balancing Act', Letters to the Editor, Law Society Gazette,14
August 2003, at 16; F. Burton, `New Ways to Work Towards the Work-Life Balance:
or for the Law Society, on average one per decade, and subsequent Law
Society initiatives to improve the retention and advancement of women in
the profession,
2
progress remains slow.
3
Within the period 1997±2002 1,568
solicitors failed to renew their practising certificates, which, when calculated
by gender as a percentage of all solicitors who held practising certificates in
2002, represented non-renewal by 1.6 per cent of all male solicitors com-
pared with non-renewal by 2.4 per cent of female solicitors.
4
Even thought
these figures do not suggest an enormous difference in renewal patterns, it is
the average age of renewal that highlights the differences. The mean male
age of non-renewal is 52 years compared with 40 for women (three-fifths of
women leave in their 30s). When Bradshaw and Thomas investigated the
reasons why solicitors had not renewed their practising certificates, it
became clear that men were more likely to allow their practising certificate
to lapse because they had taken early retirement, whereas women's reasons
were most likely to relate to child-related commitments. In addition, and
perhaps related to this, female progression into senior positions appears to be
a slow trickle up, rather than a constant and widening stream of advance-
ment.
5
While the problems facing women as a group have been highlighted
and studied repeatedly, problems of double discrimination ± gender
375
The Compleat Women Lawyer or Closing the Rhetoric-Reality Gap', edited paper
from the Annual Woman Lawyer Forum (2002). See, too, recent research on pay and
promotion prospects in the context of parenthood by V. Wass and R. McNabb,
Discrimination and the Law: Pay Promotion and Parenthood (2004) at
www.cf.ac.uk/carbs/econ/mcnabb/solspaper.pdf>, which indicates that women
solicitors' earnings are on average only two-thirds that of their male counterparts
and that only one-third of the difference in pay is attributable to a difference in career
progression rather than other factors. For a recent exploration of the potential for
positive change by the use of affirmative action in the legal profession, see D.
Nicholson, `Affirmative Action in the Legal Profession' (2006) 33 J. of Law and
Society 109.
2Sommerlad and Sanderson's research identified strategies that may be employed to
retain women solicitors who had had children. See H. Sommerlad and P. Sanderson,
`The Legal Labour Market and the Training Needs of Women Returners in the United
Kingdom' (1997) 29 J. of Vocational Education and Training 45. See, further, H.
Sommerlad and P. Sanderson, Gender Choice and Commitment: Women Solicitors in
England and Wales and the Struggle for Equal Status (1998).
3The studies were conducted by A. Bradshaw and P. Thomas, `Leaving the Profes-
sion': A Survey of Solicitors Not Renewing their Practising Certificates (1995);
Sommerlad and Sanderson, id.; J. Siems, Equality and Diversity; Women Solicitors
Research Study 48,vol. 1 (Quantitative Findings) (2004); and L. Duff and L. Webley,
Equality & Diversity: Women Solicitors Research Study 48, vol. 2 (Qualitative
Findings and Literature Review) (2004).
4Siems, id.
5Inasurvey of the largest 100 firms conducted by the Young Women Lawyers group,
only 25 per cent of new partners that year were women: C. McGlynn and C. Graham,
Soliciting Equality: Equality and Opportunity in the Solicitors' Profession (1995).
See, too, C. McGlynn, The Women Lawyer Making the Difference (1998) at 84±5 for
a discussion of some women's experiences in this context.
ß2007 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2007 Cardiff University Law School
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting