Flexible working damages women’s legal career

And there is a common perception that women solicitors perceive negative career consequences associated with using work-family/life policies.

Women who work part-time or on flexitime say they have fewer opportunities for promotion and had less career satisfaction than other female solicitors.  The survey by Kings College London was one of the largest ever undertaken of women solicitors in the UK with 800 taking part from firms ranging from City firms to high street practices. 

Forty six per cent of those surveyed say colleagues had to put their jobs first, ahead of both their families and private lives to progress; and a third was dissatisfied with the opportunities open to them to work flexibly.

Professor Janet Walsh of Kings College, says: “The career development and work-life balance of women solicitors are issues of major concern for the future of the legal profession. Unfortunately there is a perception among some women solicitors that law firms pay lip service to work-life policies and to flexible working and are not fully committed to their implementation. If law firms wish to avoid higher levels of burnout and dissatisfaction they need to look carefully at the issue of women’s career progression, particularly at senior associate/associate level, and to address women’s concerns about work-life balance and flexible working at all levels of the profession.”

Dr Clare McConnell, Chairwoman of the AWS, says: “Flexible working, for any solicitor, should not be seen as a barrier to career progression. With good communication between women solicitors and their employers, flexible working can be structured in such a way which benefits not only women solicitors but our legal businesses.”