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A not so unconscious bias
Law was the last profession in England (other than the Church) to bar women from entering its esteemed ranks. She may have fought the law and the law won, but Gwyneth Bebb’s case against The Law Society in 1913 did much to pave the way for women to be admitted to practise as solicitors. Accordingly, 2019 marks 100 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act , which meant that female lawyers could finally be classed as “people “for the purposes of becoming a solicitor.
Thanks to Bebb and her contemporaries (and perhaps helped by women’s suffrage and World War One), there is no bar to women entrants into the profession. Empirical data indicates parity between the sexes insofar as female lawyers have made up over 50% of new entrants into the profession since 1993. Whilst women represent around 63% of students on the LL.B and LPC, there continues to be a real paucity in the upper echelons of the profession. Diversity data from the SRA evidences that women make up just 28% of partners, members or directors. Why is there such disconnect between education and practice? After all, a diverse legal profession is important when it comes to reinforcing public perception that justice is fair and impartial. It follows that a profession dithering to address its own equality issues risks being undermined in society’s eyes.
The law is underpinned by integrity so giving women preferential treatment in the higher ranks is narrative fracturing. Not only may racial and ethnic minorities be pushed to the periphery of inclusion discourse, but it is self-defeating as well. Even after the slew of equality legislation over the years, bias is not necessarily visible. It can also be implicit.
Implicit bias is hard to recognise because we all have attitudes towards people or associate stereotypes with them without our conscious knowledge. These stereotypes are influenced by our own experiences and learned associations and these manifests themselves in certain judgments, which marginalise inclusivity. For example, assumptions that women are gentle, and kind mean that sometimes, they just cannot win. If a woman is not assertive, they are criticised for failing to show leadership. If they are, however, then they can find themselves accused of aggression in a way that male leaders would not. Take the time to take this test and you will may be surprised with the results: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html . Indeed, The Law Society (spearheaded by Christina Blacklaws) has taken a systematic approach in dealing with the issues and there is now a toolkit, which explores this further https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/practice-management/diversity-inclusion/women-in-leadership-in-law/ .
Unconscious bias is a facet of human psychology. Understanding it and focusing on the way legal education is delivered may be a powerful weapon in dealing with inequality in the legal profession. Our law schools must take responsibility for shaping the future profession by focusing on lawyers in their genesis. Education can be a mechanism by which a sense of ethical responsibility is instilled into the many. This means teaching more than the usual doctrinal and black letter subjects and creating space in a curriculum for legal ethics and jurisprudence. Future female and male law students need to be equipped with the requisite tools to succeed in a profession marked by bias (including their own). It is imperative that our law schools should be at the forefront of championing various initiatives that educate all students about inequality in the law because what acts as a detriment to one gender can only act as a detriment to the other. Mentoring male and female academics and placing emphasis on culture and equalities committees as a forum for change are some ways in which inequality might be addressed.
So, it can be said that the solution is one of visibility. Pioneering legal women and male champions should descend upon our law schools and law fairs in force. Women’s legal networking groups should go full throttle. Women lawyers and their male counterparts must inspire with a narrative of their own struggles and proffer hope that there is light at the end of the inequality tunnel. Such words must be uttered to a live audience otherwise their sentiment risks losing weight. Women and men can be powerful agents of change who can re-shape the future of the legal profession into one which is diverse, collaborative and, ultimately, responsible.
Emma Mitcham
Chair, International Relations Sub-Committee
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