Equal measures

This new legislation is an important step forward in promoting equality throughout the legal profession. The measures concerning pay secrecy clauses are particularly welcome '“ these will no longer be enforceable in the context of a 'relevant pay disclosure'. In other words, a woman will be able to ask a male colleague what his salary is where she expects she is paid less because she is a woman, and the employer will no longer be able to intervene on the basis that the man has signed a secrecy clause concerning his pay. It will be interesting to see the effect of this on the Association of Women Solicitors and the Law Society's joint equal pay campaign.

However, the most recent research from the Legal Services Board, Barriers to the legal profession, (Rosaline Sullivan, July 2010) indicates there is still a long road to travel in the pursuit of equality and diversity.

Sullivan says despite the high number of female and ethnic minority individuals training in legal services, the diversity of the sector declines quickly with time. Women account for 46.1 per cent of solicitors with practising certificates, and now account for 61 per cent of all law students. Yet a much higher proportion of men achieve partner status with the rewards that brings; 74.7 per cent of men become partners within ten to 19 years in the profession compared with only 46.7 per cent of women. She repeats earlier conclusions that: 'Gender is clearly a significant category of disadvantage and the subordination of women within legal practice has been well documented.'

It is also clear that women tend to be employed in lower-paid fields of practice such as family, employment and benefits entitlement. Much more research needs to be done to investigate whether firms, large firms in particular, discriminate, even unconsciously, against women, or whether female lawyers make a conscious choice to seek employment in smaller, less profitable firms or less well-remunerated areas of practice because of other perceived benefits and attractions. It may be that throughout their education and training women are 'guided' towards particular areas in the law because these are thought to be 'women's work' How odd to be using that Victorian phrase now we are well into the 21st century!

Rapid decline

The Law Society's 2009 report Trends in the solicitors' profession supports the above conclusions and indicates how rapidly the number of women holding practising certificates declines with time.

In their mid to late twenties women outnumber men by 12,279 to 7,232, and retain rough parity until their mid to late thirties '“ the time when partnership status should be achieved. But from then on the decline is very marked and men outnumber women by 7,255 to 3,264 by their early fifties. In part this is explicable on the basis of historic recruitment patterns; but, not entirely so, for women have been entering the profession in increasing numbers since the 1980s, and so one might expect to see more of them still in place now than the figures indicate. The reality is there is a considerable drop-out rate among women solicitors, and this is especially marked in the first years of practice. By the ninth year after qualification, 40 per cent of women will have left, and though the rate of leaving slows after that point it does continue. Furthermore, once a woman has left, research recently carried out for the AWS by Professor Janet Walsh of Kings College London shows they do not return.

Cold comfort

These conclusions are supported by findings from the European Women Lawyers' Association, so maybe we can take some comfort from the fact the problem is pan-European and not just confined to this country. Even so, the drop-out rate can only be described in terms of attrition '“ such is the waste of investment, hopes and talent.

What needs to be considered is whether there is an inbuilt, somewhat cynical, assumption among those who recruit to the profession that young female entrants can be employed on the basis that they are cheap and will not last, but they can be easily replaced by others. A constant influx and efflux of cheaply paid women could be a reason for the clear discrepancy in pay we have noted. Is the new legislation apt to deal with that?