Women and the Law: Is there Real Equality?

For women in the law, it is not just the pay differential that hurts. Statistics show that despite huge gains, women lawyers are still failing to equal men in partnerships, at the Bar and on the Bench.

According to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, female graduates earn less than men from the day they start work and the gap widens through their careers even though the number of female law graduates now exceeds the number of male graduates.

Males are four times more likely than females to be appointed to partnership positions, according to the annual Lawyers Weekly partnership survey.

Statistics held by the Victorian Bar show that over the period 2003 to 2008 the number of government briefs going to women increased by 10 per cent, from 42 per cent of government briefs to 52 per cent, but the fees received by women for that work increased by only 7 per cent in real terms.

Female barristers briefed by a state government department received on average 59% of the fee paid to a male barrister and a female barrister briefed by the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office received on average 47 per cent of the fee paid to a male barrister.

The increased proportion of female barristers briefed by State Government departments was probably a direct reflection of Rob Hull's, the then Attorney General, policy of gender equality in the law, and some would say affirmative action, to ensure that more women judges were appointed and that Government departments briefed more women barristers.

Despite the very commendable intentions of these policies, it is interesting that sexism still has a way of overcoming the best of intentions. In other words, what possible explanation can there be for the fact that women barristers appear to have been paid less than their male counterparts.

This is either a reflection of the quality and complexity of the work given to women as opposed to men and this differential can only be accounted for by sexism or even worse, the Government thinks that it can get away with paying less to women for the same work.

It is also noteworthy that many female barristers who were briefed by Government Departments or Authorities in an endeavour to meet the then Attorney's expectations, were briefed as junior counsel and all too frequently they do little other than take notes or do research for Senior Counsel or if they were lucky, they were allowed to cross examine minor witnesses.

Women judges still only comprise less than 33% of all Judges and Magistrates throughout Australia with the ACT having the highest proportion of female judicial officers at 45%, Victoria the next best at 38% and Tasmania trailing at an abysmal 25%!

So even though statistics do not always tell the whole truth, these figures alone show how far women still have to go in the law. Having said that, I look back at my own experiences and apart from those early sleazy barristers who frankly didn't faze me at all, I can honestly say that not once in all my career have I felt that my gender has been a barrier.

Nevertheless, the law is still a profession where it is not easy for women to make choices and achieving a work/life balance can be very difficult. I still recall how it broke my heart to go back to work full time when my children were babies but I felt that I had no choice, even though looking back, I went back to work full time because of expectations I placed on myself and not because my partners expected me to do so.

The truth today is that both men and women are struggling with these choices and I believe that it is those work places which recognise and respect an appropriate work/life balance that will attract the brightest and best of our budding lawyers, whether they be men or women.