“Equal In Law? The Case of The Female Lawyer”.

An Article Analysis With Reference To Relevant Laws

For

Haze Management Consultancy

Christine Shaw

Word count = 1696

“Equal In Law? The Case of the Female Lawyer”

The article “Equal In Law? The Case of The Female Lawyer”, provides in insight into the issues that have arisen in respect to equal opportunities. It also enables an overview of the law associated and how these are put into practice. A number of problems for females practising in law are evident from the article and I have structured my analysis by discussing the problems, with the appropriate legal issues followed by a conclusion of implications that this area of law could have for the company or its clients and recommendations.

A fundamental problem highlighted in the article is that throughout the years, women have been discovering great difficulties entering a career in law. This is mainly due to the fact that although there are laws protecting the rights of women, they are not sufficient. There is also, a lack of enforcement, negative attitudes towards these laws and attitudes towards female lawyers and barristers in general.

Historical context of discrimination

Initially women had little or no laws protecting them at work, as it was not socially expected for a woman to work. Over the decades there has been a dramatic change in social attitude, which has resulted in laws being enforced. The main change mentioned in the article was the enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. This enabled women to enter many professions, which previously condemned them. As a result of this, the first female solicitor and barrister was admitted as beforehand it was considered illegal for a female to enter the legal profession. Progress of female entrants however was slow and the article points out that “the 70’s saw the first significant rise in women entrants”.

In 1923 the Association of Women Solicitors was formed and together with organisations such as the Association of Women Barristers they focus on many issues that have risen in the past due to discrimination. Despite the concentration for Associations on issues of sex discrimination and laws being formed, there are still great difficulties in respect to the attitudes towards women.

Critical of law

The article in General is extremely critical of the law, highlighting that although times have changed and laws have been enforced to protect women from prejudice, there still is a great barrier for women in the legal profession, as it continues to be a male dominated world. In theory certain laws are available, however in practice they are not being taken seriously. It also mentions that although females are “attaining more firsts and upper seconds than their male counterparts,” and more women are entering the profession they are also leaving the profession very quickly due ...

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Critical of law

The main problems of discrimination reported in the article are that although are women better qualified, they do not move as quickly as males, as there is a “glass roof” on their career, which blocks their progress. Despite the higher qualifications, female trainees are paid less and this is supported by figures from the “Annual Statistical Survey for 1998”, which state that on average earnings are 4.4 per cent lower. This image of women earning less in their profession is reinforced when we look at the general picture. The EOC state that “despite more than 20 years of equal pay legislation, women on average still earn less than men” and that “Women working full-time earn 80 per cent of the hourly earnings of male full-timers”. According to Winyard in “Poverty Wages” p. 1, “Nationally one and a half of all full-time women are low paid” and Tess Hill and Larry Whitty say that “The gap between male and female earnings in Britain is larger than in most other West European countries”. Tess Hill and Larry Whitty also criticise the equal pay act by pointing out “none of the equal pay definitions touches women’s access to men’s jobs”.

There is also great difficulty in that women are given the responsibility of childcare, although there are inadequate organisational arrangements, which could be in the form of home working, job sharing flexi-time or a corporate deal with a childcare agency. There is also a lack of choice within their profession and evidence of constant oppression.

Concerning Laws

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and The Equal Pay Act 1970 aim to create equality between the sexes. The SDA makes discrimination unlawful in “employment, education, advertising, or when providing housing, goods, services, or facilities”. There are two forms of discrimination these are direct discrimination, and indirect discrimination.

On the 5th November 1998, the Equal Opportunities Commission submitted recommendations for a new sex equality law to the government. This aims to provide more clarity in the present law, including suggestions such as clarifying “the EOC’s jurisdiction in the context of the EC law”, “a reduction in the current exceptions”, they also request an examination of “positive discrimination” which is described as “preferential treatment to a previously disadvantaged group”. and “monitoring by law” of companies. Also recommended is that the “respondent of a victim is to prove that discrimination has not taken place”.

The equal pay act covers all workplaces and Article 119 of the equal pay act deals with obligations of states to do certain things regarding equal pay and provides a definition of equal pay. It states that Men and Women should receive “Equal pay for equal work”. However an employer is allowed to treat women differently in respect to maternity leave and according to EC legislation, a Directive adopted on 19 October 1992 employers should provide women with 14 weeks maternity leave. The EOC recommends changing this to 18 weeks and simplifying the procedures.

There are many other careers that have been affected by sex discrimination. Many women work part time due to family commitments and cases such as Powell & Clarke v Eley (IMI) Kynoch, and Dick v University of Dundee, provide evidence of Companies attempting to discreetly discriminate against part time workers, which in turn discriminated women. An attempt to improve upon this situation is made by the “European Commission’s Draft Directive On Voluntary Part Time Work”, which strives to give part time workers the same rights as full time workers, but regarding “the special nature of part time employment”.

Haze Management consultancy is based in Germany France and UK. It is therefore crucial to have an overview of the situation in all countries and the relevant European laws. Over the past 40 years, the EC’s policy has built up, from events and pressures and it is a group of 12 Countries bound together by three major international treaties along with a number of smaller ones. In Germany the Basic Constitutional Law of 1949, states that “Men and Women shall have equal rights”. This was amended by the European Community Adjustment Act of 1980 to comply with both directives. This states “equal pay for work of equal value” and the same statement is in the laws of France in 1972 and the UK in 1970.

Conclusion

The people affected by the article are employees, businesses and society in general. Firstly in respect to employees, the women are affected in that they are discriminated as previously mentioned. However this also works in the opposite direction for men as they have less laws protecting them as a male and if they find themselves in a bullied situation, they remain powerless. They also remain powerless when witnessing a situation of sex discrimination, due to company’s image of male on one side of the fence and women on the other. Also, Business may be affected in that females may be better qualified, but due to the discrimination are leaving. This in turn creates the situation that companies are loosing out on good employees and as a result of this society is loosing out in that the better-qualified employees are not available to support them.

Although there are laws protecting women at work, the goal of harmonisation has not yet been reached. Problems arising are general attitudes towards women and when discrimination is experienced, difficulties in obtaining evidence is great. When comparing statistics, the picture, which is formed, is a picture of society and this can not be placed as evidence in court.

Recommendations

The implications of the changes in laws for Haze Management consultants are that the relevant research must be made and kept up to date, so that they may give the relevant advice to the clients

Although it is important to create equal opportunities, we must also accept that due to problems arising and specific requirements of a professional female, additional protection in the form of more specific laws and serious reinforcement is required and will therefore changes in this area of the law are expected.

In general companies need to achieve a greater awareness and seriousness of the issues affecting women and more intense review should be made. The article highlighted the slow process of law enforcement being formed into reality and therefore more enforcement and encouragement should be made for the companies to address such problems, which would catalyse laws becoming reality.

Recommending clients of Haze Management Consultancy to have a code of practice incorporating equal opportunities would be highly advisable, although the content and size should vary according to the size of the company. This would help to promote equality of opportunity and create awareness in this area of concern. By creating a company policy in this field, it is recommended to highlight that it is in the interests of both the organisation and employees.

It is also important to have appropriate contracts with employees that comply with the relevant laws and integrate with the changing attitudes towards women at work. This should be done by a review of the client’s contracts, which they issue to employees.

Haze Management Consultants need to keep close records of changes in the adopted directives of the EC as these are usually converted into a national legislation within two years. This information is collected by the commission and held on the CELEX database and can be obtained by contacting the local EuroInfoCentre. This I would highly recommend, as Haze Management Consultants need to be able to advise clients of changes and have a good insight into the future.