The Association of Women Solicitors is involved in a number of campaigns to support women solicitors. Details of our latest campaigns appear below.
For more information or to get involved in any of our campaigns, please contact the AWS chair or the PR officer.
The Association of Women Solicitors will be launch a campaign in January 2009 to encourage more women to apply for judicial and public appointments. The campaign will seek to give women solicitors guidance on making applications to the bench and to public appointments. It will actively encourage women solicitors to apply for such appointments and will given them the confidence to succeed.
The last few years have certainly seen an increase in women appointed to the bench and now women make up 28% of Deputy District Judges and 20% of Circuit Judges. Five of the 22 High Court judges recently recommended for appointment by the Judicial Appointments Commission this year are women which will raise the number of women High Court judges to 17, the highest ever.
However anecdotal evidence suggests that women solicitors still lack the confidence to apply. The AWS therefore hopes to work closely with other organisations, such as the Law Society and the Judicial Appointments Commission in the next two years to help and encourage appropriate candidates to apply for judicial office and other public posts.
Updates on the campaign will appear on this page (as well as in the press).
UK Association of Women Judges
www.judicialappointments.gov.uk – Judicial Appointments Commission
www.thewnc.org.uk/wnc/public_appointments.html - Women in Public Life Appointments Vacancies
The joint Association of Women Solicitors/Law Society equal pay campaign was launched on 20 May 2008 at the inaugural AWS Fiona Woolf lecture. The AWS will campaign over two years to draw attention to the inequalities of pay in the legal sector, and explore its causes and potential solutions. The aim is to identify steps the sector can take to address the problem and recommend actions. The campaign may also lead to the development of products and services to support practices in addressing pay inequality.
Updates on the campaign will appear on this page (as well as in the press).
Press release issued on 22 May - AWS and Law Society joining forces to address pay inequalities for women
For more information or to get involved in any of our campaigns, please contact the AWS chair or the PR officer.
