Businesses where staff think and act the same never thrive

In 2016 Solicitors Journal will mark its 160th birthday. The magazine has taken pride in informing its loyal readership of the latest case law, legal business, and government affairs over the past 16 decades. Yet sadly, it is only in the past decade or so that the press and society as a whole has paid real attention to the difficulties professional women face in the business world. 

While chairing ARK Group’s Women in Legal event last week, it quickly became apparent why female professionals were so keen to come together and discuss an issue not consigned to the past: they are looking for a solution. 

Research indicates that the gender pay gap for the legal sector won’t close until 2021. A knock-on effect of the gap as seen across various industries is that every year, from 9 November until 1 January, women effectively work for free. That equates to one hour and 40 minutes per day of free labour. For women working across management professions, the Chartered Management Institute and pay analysts XPertHR estimate that work is worth £8,524. And this is despite the Equal Pay Act coming into force nearly half a century ago. 

The disparity has led the Fawcett Society – dedicated to closing the inequality gap for women since 1866 – to rename 9 November ‘Equal Pay Day’. But the society recognises it’s not the only challenge women face. 

There is still reluctance in government to address some of the biggest inhibitors to a woman’s career and economic stability. Statutory maternity pay still stands at around £139 a week – or £500 a month – which can be financially crippling, not just for single parents, but also for couples. The cost of childcare is astronomical. 

Figures show the average full-time nursery bill for a child under two is £11,000 a year, or nearly £15,000 in London. The Family and Childcare Trust’s 2015 report on childcare costs put it bluntly: ‘For too many families, it simply does not pay to work.’

And when women do finally return to work Well, according to the Fawcett Society, a woman’s future wage falls an average of 4 per cent each year she is absent from the workplace. 

These factors prohibit a gender-balanced workplace and exclude women’s opinion from the discussion. But why is a diverse workplace so important? Put brilliantly by former Forbes publisher Malcolm Forbes: ‘Diversity is the art of thinking independently together.’ Your business will never thrive if its entire staff think and act the same way – it will only move in one direction.

So, what is the solution How do you encourage women into more senior positions Women make up 60 per cent of practice certificate holders under the age of 35. However, the number of women partners is down from 8,115 to 7,985 in 2014, and they make up just one in four partners across the profession. 

Women in Legal’s keynote speaker Patricia K Gillette, a US partner of global firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, asked the women lawyers in the room to draw on the power they never knew they had to propel their careers forward and end unconscious bias in the workplace. 

Gillette advocates self-promotion, chasing opportunities, being present in the decision-making process – quite literally, the room where it takes place – and championing business development as economic power as vital steps necessary to end women coming second in the race to law firms’ c-suites. 

After these wise words from Gillette, attendees came up with their own, everyday solutions. If you’re a junior, bring the conversation into a smaller room. How Mentor, support peer-to-peer progress – if you’re a young lawyer, be active, seek someone more senior. If you are the senior practitioner, be willing to pass on an opportunity. And mentoring does not have to be woman to woman nor man to man. 

It is now, 93 years after the first women, Ivy Williams and Helena Normanton, were called to the Bar. But it is more important than ever to continue to fight for equal rights in the workplace and champion a flexible working culture worthy of modern-day working life. And these rights are not just women lawyers’. They belong to Black, Asian, and minority ethnic members, to LGBT lawyers, and they belong to men too – because all of us are equal and should be treated as such. 

Events such as Women in Legal should empower women to challenge inequality whenever and wherever they witness it; to stimulate and open employers’ minds as to what a diverse workforce can offer; and for both employer and employee, man and woman, to recognise the challenges women face in the workplace.

Laura Clenshaw is managing editor of Solicitors Journal and a team member for the First 100 Years project @L_Clenshaw first100years.org.uk