Women in Law

by Margaret Ostrowski, QC

A recent study by the American Bar Association concludes that top jobs and top pay still elude women in law. They found that although the number of US women lawyers has grown from 3 per cent in the 1960s to 30 per cent today, women on the average make $20,000 less than men, and account for only 15 per cent of federal judges, 10 per cent of law school deans and general counsel, and 5 per cent of the managing partners at large law firms. Women of colour comprise 3 per cent of the legal profession. The study further found that women lawyers are not given the same presumption of competence as men, they lack adequate mentoring support, they meet resistance to demands for flexible work schedules, they risk sexual harassment, and they encounter gender-bias throughout the judicial system. Almost one-half of the women are unmarried whereas only 15 per cent of the men are unmarried. I have no results showing how many of those married women had children.

Can these results be generalized to Canadian women in law? I don’t know. Has the CBA done such a study? No. What can we say about our Canadian women in law? What can we say about our BC women in law?

Take a look at the statistics to the left. They represent only the tip of a very disturbing iceberg. Of the 33 largest firms in the province, how many have a female managing partner? Two. Of the 57 BC Branch Presidents from 1879, how many have been women? Six. Of the 62 Law Society Presidents since 1869, how many have been women? Three. Of the 25 elected Benchers of the Law Society, how many are women? Five. Of the eight non-rotating CBABC elected executive positions, how many are women? Two. At a pure anecdotal level, what do senior women practitioners and leaders say is their biggest equality problem? Not being listened to and not being given credit for their work and ideas.

Are we doing enough to help our young women to stay in the practice of law and to become leaders in our profession? I’m not sure we are. Our BC Branch has a Womens’ Equality and Practice Issues Section, and we have an Equality Representative now sitting on our Executive. But women are leaving the practice of law in their early years and it is not always to have children. The most likely lawyer to take advantage of the Law Society part-time fee and insurance discount is a male over the age of 50.

Why are women leaving? Some months ago, I asked this question to Kwan Foo, the Equity and Diversity Program Coordinator on staff at the Law Society. In his opinion, the practice of law still has a long way to go for equality – it has been a traditionally conservative and male profession. We are in the very beginning phase of change, the “glass ceiling” has raised slightly but change is happening slowly - very little has happened in the last ten years. He speculates that there may be differences in styles in the practice of law between men and women – that women may have a stronger desire to balance their work and home life. He feels that women may have a higher degree of emotional intelligence and may feel that a practice based on a adversarial system is not the best system. Initiatives such as collaborative law need time to develop.

In June, the CBABC is sponsoring a President’s Forum entitled “Creating Success: A Symposium for Women in Law”. To date, we have had a tremendous response and it looks like it is going to be a sell-out. We hope that some of our male members come too. Our senior women in the profession will be sharing trade secrets on how they became partners in large firms, law professors, Presidents, corporate counsel, judges, mediators, and successful sole practitioners. I hope this forum will be a first step to help all our younger lawyers, indeed all of us, to achieve those lofty ambitions we all had in law school and make this profession all the stronger for it.

This article was published in the June 2001 issue of BarTalk. © 2001 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.