How do we fight gender bias when recruiting in the legal sector?

International Women’s Day, held each year on March 8th, is a day dedicated to celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the world. In 2018 the campaign has a particular focus on gender parity, and encourages us to #PressforProgress, an initiative that is close to the heart of many recruitment professionals, myself included. In a climate where activism for equality is fuelled by movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp, there has perhaps never been a better time for us to address some of the issues we face in establishing gender equality. 

Recruiting into the legal sector, I am all too aware of the potential pitfalls and barriers which women in our sector face, particularly in leadership positions. Meaningful change, in terms of gender equality, will only occur when individuals can see themselves represented among their leaders. When that change happens at the top, people can see a way forward for themselves. Having women in leadership positions is a community issue – not a women’s issue.  
While it is necessary to discuss these imbalances to increase awareness, it is also important to start focusing on positive change and conversations surrounding women in business. We need to discuss what steps can be taken to address this disparity and any biases which are causing it.

Where are we now?

Within the legal profession, we are actually now seeing female graduates greatly outnumbering their male counterparts. In 2017, women accounted for 68% of law school entries and in the same period 61% of new solicitors added to the roll were female according to the SRA. 
However, with women making up a large proportion of those taking up careers in law, there remains a clear disparity of representation in senior roles. Across the board, only 33% of practice partners are female and this figure drops to just to 29% in the country’s largest firms. While this gap has narrowed in recent years, there is still a long way to go to achieve parity.

How do we fight gender bias when recruiting?

Unconscious bias happens when our brains make incredibly quick judgements and assessments of people and situations without us realising. Our biases are influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences, and we may not even be aware of these views and opinions, or aware of their full impact and implications. In the realm of recruitment, this can lead to an imbalance, not only in terms of gender representation, but for age, race and religion. 
Here are some steps which can be taken in the recruitment process to help restrict any unconscious bias.
  • Pay attention to the quality of job descriptions you provide to decision-makers. Make sure that they include clear and comprehensive information. This will help you to focus on relevant data during a hiring process and provides a guideline for the qualifications and attributes to look out for in applications. 
  • Following on from the above, where possible, encourage applicants to provide clear, job-related information that will demonstrate their suitability for the role. This might mean being very specific about the information you need, such as key responsibilities, individual achievements or specific technical expertise and qualifications.
  • Hire by committee. Team decisions can be more resistant to biases than individual decisions. Panel-based interviews can be intimidating for the candidate, but they can also help to reduce inherent bias (assuming, of course, you opt for a diverse panel).  Interestingly, Google actually involves managers from a totally unrelated field too, to provide a ‘disinterested’ party.
  • If you have the final say in the hire, then you need to be brutally honest with yourself in determining whether your own personal bias is seeping into the process. Bias is built into almost everything we do, but you won’t see it unless you look for it. 
  • If you suspect unconscious bias is a real issue in your recruitment process then employing an outside agency to field the initial responses and present suitable candidates can be useful. You will still get the final say on the candidate hired, but you’ll also get a thoroughly vetted and diverse set of applicants.

Embedding D&I in your organisation

Ensuring that diversity and inclusion (D&I) is part of your organisation’s hiring and progression planning is no longer optional. Not only does it guarantee a varied and equal workforce, diversity has also been proven to improve creativity, innovation and business performance.
While this all sounds good in theory, how many businesses actually know where to begin? At what stage is your organisation embedding D&I? Have you taken all the steps you can? Use our Diversity & Inclusion Checklist Generator to find out and to create a strategy which you can move forward with.

Are we there yet?

As a society we are certainly making strides forward in the fight against gender inequality and days such as IWD are helping a great deal. However, in the business world, we still face a significant battle to overcome the challenges of unconscious bias and are certainly not there yet. But where is there? There is a time when gender imbalance is a non-topic, when women are equally represented in leadership positions and the boardroom, and receive equal pay. There is a time when flexible working enables women to excel in their jobs and be a mother if they so choose - a time when women have the choice and opportunity to follow their career aspirations unimpeded. There is not a utopia, it is an achievable norm.
If you want to discuss how you can further incorporate D&I in your organisation, get in touch with Katherine Jackson, Regional Director, Michael Page Legal.
T: 0207 269 2413