08/09/2008 - City Walk - Yankee Doodle Dandies
17/09/2008 - EGM
23/09/2008 - Raising your Profile
Whilst women's standing in the legal profession has been steadily improving in recent years, most of us are still not making it to the top: for instance, in 2005 women made up over 60% of new entrants to the profession (having accounted for more than half of new entrants for the past 10 years); however only 23% of private practice partners were women.
At the same time, women who do make it to the top are more likely than men
to occupy leadership roles that are more readily associated with the risk
of criticism and failure. Ryan and Haslam dubbed this new phenomenon the
'Glass Cliff' to describe the precarious nature of women's leadership positions.
Exeter University is undertaking a major research project investigating,
inter alia, the trajectory of women in the legal profession, together with
the opportunities and the barriers we may face. This is the first study to
look in detail at the actual experiences of women in the legal profession
and seeks to collect the evidence required to make a difference. The AWS
has been actively involved in facilitating responses to the research team’s
online questionnaire, focus groups and individual case studies.
The final research report and academic papers are being finalized and will
appear in academic journals soon, with a follow up article in Link magazine.
Click here to
find out more or email Joanne Mortimer on the AWS executive committee at
glasscliff@womensolicitors.org.uk.
Work-life balance has in the past often been brushed aside as merely a women’s issue, particularly in the legal profession but recent research into the work-life balance of male lawyers demonstrates the issue is entering the mainstream. Richard Collier, professor of law at Newcastle University, is one of the UK’s leading academic experts on gender and law, and spoke at the 2005 Women Lawyer Forum. His groundbreaking research on the work-life balance of male lawyers (and on the controversial fathers’ rights movement) was profiled in the Winter 2006 edition Link magazine article ‘Sand in the Blackberry’ by Joanne Mortimer.
Professor Collier carried out a small-scale qualitative study, funded by
the British Academy, conducting in-depth interviews with male lawyers, from
trainee to equity partner, on their experiences of working in large commercial
firms. The research report provides some fascinating insights. Click
here to find out more.
Click here to go to the Link magazine
website. Click here to join
the AWS and to start receiving Link magazine free of charge.