David Lee: A Women in the Law event will take a hard look at equality

The word feminism feels dated, and when Catriona Headley came to organising an event on Women In The Law, she was very conscious of its connotations – but still acutely aware of the significant issues lying beneath it.

“It is one of those words you can’t talk about; it has almost become the new F-word,” says the President of the Scottish Young Lawyers’ Association. “Many women of my generation [she is 27] feel that the fight has been won and don’t see it as an issue.

“But when you look at the numbers of women who achieve the highest roles in the legal profession – and when you experience intentional or unintentional sexism in your life, you realise the battle hasn’t been won yet. We need to be aware of the issues around women and consider them going forward. There still needs to be a frank discussion about gender equality and the glass ceiling.”

Headley thinks the tide will turn eventually: “More women are doing law degrees and more are coming into the profession, so hopefully in ten years we will not be having this kind of conversation.” At the moment, there are still slightly more male than female lawyers with practising certificates in Scotland – 5,548 to 5,025 – but this is tipping, with 690 female and only 405 male trainees coming through the system, and more women taking law degrees.

Clearly there’s an audience for such conversations at the moment – the Women In The Law event scheduled for the evening of 14 March has had to increase capacity three times to meet demand.

This is partly down to the hugely impressive speaker line-up: Lady Cosgrove, the first woman to become a judge in the Supreme Courts in Scotland; Dorothy Bain QC, Principal Advocate-Depute 2009-2011; Linda Urquhart, Chairman and former Chief Executive at Morton Fraser and the first female chair of CBI Scotland and Maggie Scott, the redoubtable QC.

“If there are female public figures to aspire to in the legal world in Scotland, these are those women,” says Headley. “They are all fantastic, barrier-breaking woman who have a lot to say. Lady Cosgrove is a towering figure and Maggie Scott is an amazing woman; the intellect she brings to everything she does is very inspiring.

“Dorothy Bain brings a unique viewpoint from her time as Principal Advocate Depute, traditionally a male-dominated area of the profession, while Linda Urquhart seemed an obvious choice from the solicitor profession for all the great work she has done.”

The remit of the night is to examine “the progress of women’s rights in the UK and the world, women in the judiciary, the boardroom and at the Bar and whether gender remains a relevant issue to women embarking upon a legal career in the 21st century.” The event, Headley stresses, is open to women and men: “International Women’s Day is not about men-bashing or women taking over, it’s about genuine equality of opportunity – and you achieve that only through mutual understanding. If we deny there’s an issue, we’ll never resolve it; if there’s a genuine will to make improvements, there’ll be improvements.”

The event aims to inspire young women coming into the profession and Linda Urquhart says she would “never hesitate to recommend law as a career” to young women. She explains: “I think there is something in it for everybody; there are lots of different areas where you can find a niche – though I think you have to be incredibly robust.

“Law is a great thing to do even if you go off later in a different direction; you get such a good grounding in a wide range of transferrable skills. I also think women are really good at law because it’s all about building relationships. Guys are good, but women are very good too!”

Urquhart is not so certain about the generational shift ushering in fundamental changes: “It will have an impact but not many men will opt out to start a family, while many women will – because women are still primarily the main carers. We still see very limited numbers equally sharing childcare arrangements.

“We are seeing more flexible working arrangements but the creative models are still in the minority. There is definitely a shift but it is still quite slow. Fundamentally, the need to serve clients has to be at the heart of it all – and balancing that with different ways of doing things can be difficult.”

Dorothy Bain also thinks progress has been slow, rather than spectacular – and says there is a long way to go: “The fact that there are more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, could lead one to think that women have gained equality. As many women now work and have a family, it is also said that now they truly have real choices.

“However, if one looks at the level of representation of women working in the top roles in the legal profession in Scotland, it is very obvious there remains a long way to go before they can be said to have genuine equality with their male counterparts. The unfortunate fact is that women do not get the same opportunities as men because they continue to be discriminated against in favour of men and struggle to advance or hold onto senior positions within the profession when they start to have their own family.”

In these circumstances, she adds, International Women’s Day remains just as relevant as when it was founded in 1909 – and the SYLA event is “an excellent opportunity for women working within the legal profession in Scotland to come together and reflect on the significant advancements and achievements of women lawyers in recent times”.

Bain continues: “It will allow time to focus on the work yet to be done to achieve equality for women working in the law in the future. Identifying the challenges for women, and working out ways to resolve these, will ultimately benefit not just the significant numbers of young women who are now embarking on a career in the law, but the Scottish legal profession and Scotland as a whole.”

Catriona thinks the speakers will inspire their audience: “There is an inherent modesty among them. They’re not grandstanding or shouting about how good they are – they wear their achievements lightly, which makes them even more inspiring.” l Women In the Law, hosted by the Scottish Young Lawyers’ Association and sponsored by Compass Chambers, Wesleyan for Lawyers and Scott+Co, is on 14 March at The George Hotel, Edinburgh. It will raise money for Oxfam and International Women’s Day projects and Head of Oxfam Scotland, Judith Robertson, is also speaking. For tickets, see www.syla.co.uk/page11.htm