Female leaders across Yorkshire’s legal sector call for change as new figures reveal gender disparity in senior roles

New data compiled for The Yorkshire Post from ATLAS by Codex Edge shows that in some areas of the region women make up less than 25 per cent of the sector’s senior workforce.

Anna Ashford, head of Wetherby-based Alt Legal, said: “There's obviously a gender pay gap, as well as this kind of authority gap between men and women in society generally, but I think that is exacerbated in the legal profession because it’s so traditional.

“I’ve been working as a lawyer for around 25 years now, and I remember having this conversation 10 to 15 years ago. I remember thinking ‘we are so far behind’, and I feel like 15 years on we’re still in that same position.”

Codex Edge’s figures show that in Hull, women make up just 23.5 per cent of SRA approved managers.

Other major cities in the region also follow a similar pattern, with female managers in Leeds making up 31 per cent of the workforce. This figure rises to 36.2 per cent in York, and 43.1 per cent in Sheffield.

This disparity is present despite the figures also revealing that women make up more than 50 per cent of the total legal sector workforce across the region.

2022’s Women Who Will report showed that national figures also reflect the region, with women making up only 29 per cent of overall senior leadership positions UK wide.

Jodie Hill, founder and managing partner at Leeds-based Thrive Law, noted her belief that issues around parental leave and caring responsibilities are driving factors in gender disparity across the sector, and have led to retainment issues for firms.

She said: “There’s clearly an issue somewhere around the middle. We have lots of women going into law, but not a lot of women staying in law.

“To say it's because of parental leave is obviously a bit of a generalisation, but there's clearly a correlation there because the drop off is around the time that women are having children.

“I think a simple step that employers can take is to look at how they communicate both in the lead up to maternity leave and during maternity leave, and then to think about what support is in place when people come back.

“When we had people off on maternity leave we consulted with them on it and said ‘what would help?’

“A lot of employers assume what women want, and it's usually men making the decisions.”

Both Ms Hill and Ms Ashford noted that the billable hours system frequently used in the sector also poses a particular problem for women. The system gives lawyers targets on how many of their worked hours must be chargeable to clients within a set time period.

Rachel Roberts, regional director, North, at Stowe Family Law, added: “Most law firms are still heavily target driven, with billable hours targets that reward the people who can work the longest hours.

“Add to that often unpredictable work schedules, and it can be very difficult for women who do have children to remain in the profession at all, let alone progress by being a ‘high achiever’.

“Unconscious bias is also a huge factor, with male dominated firms often either making assumptions about a woman’s commitment to a firm if they have children or seeking to hire people in their own image, or refusing to consider women who work part time to progress.”