Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

her career, as these women may find it harder to meet therequirements for judicial and other references. The cost ofthe Silk application may also preclude some women withthe application fee for the third competition currently £2,500plus VAT and a further fee of £3,500 plus VAT payable bysuccessful applicants on appointment.…When I was at the bar I did feel that I was discriminatedagainst. After having my first child I returned to chamberson a part time, three days a week basis. After I had mysecond child, when I came back from maternity leave theclerks had done absolutely nothing to get me any work(they had not even written to solicitors to tell them that Iwas returning, although the date had been fixed for somemonths). I complained about this but little was done. I thenrequested to be allowed to pay my chambers rent on a prorata basis as I was only in three days a week but receivedthe response that my desk was available to me five days aweek and there was no reason why members of chambersshould have to subsidise me because I choose to stay athome for some of the time. I left practice shortly thereafter.My general experience at the Bar was that there appearedto be no discrimination against women who did not havechildren, or who did have children but were prepared toreturn to work without making any adjustment to the wayin which they worked, but those who wished to work parttime,or had geographical or time restrictions because oftheir childcare commitments, were effectively written off.Former Female Barrister, Questionnaire Response,February 2009Women are also often pigeonholed into practising within thestereotypically ‘acceptable’ areas for women, such as familylaw. As one woman told the Commission, “my clerk…pushed me into family work when my background was civil/commercial.” 229The Commission supports the recommendation madeby the Entry to the Bar Working Committee in relationto retention, including that equality and diversity trainingshould be made compulsory for all barristers as part of theircontinuing professional development requirements andthat a mentoring policy, particularly for women who takematernity leave or career breaks, is adopted by Chambersand relevant employers. 230The Courts and theJudiciaryThe lack of diversity in the Judiciary has remained a majorconcern for the Commission since its inception. Justiceneeds to be accessible and responsive to all citizens,irresponsive of gender. As Lady Brenda Hale, the firstfemale Judge to be appointed to the House of Lords, whenasked about the lack of female judges, commented:This matters because democracy matters . . . We arethe instrument by which the will of the Parliament andGovernment is enforced upon the people. . . Judgesshould be no less representative than the politicians andcivil servants who govern us. 231Judges should more accurately reflect the diversity ofsociety in order to ensure that there is public confidencein the system particularly from the female population.Further, women can bring new and unique perspectivesto the bench based on their experiences, concerns andinterests. As Lady Justice Arden, stated in her address tothe Association of Women Barristers “It is that potentialfor different perspectives that men and women often havethat in my view has the potential to enrich judicial decisionmaking.”232In April 2008, of the 3820 Judges in England and Wales,just under 20 percent were women. 233 The EHRC report intoSex and Power in 2008, revealed that women representedonly 9.6 percent of the senior judiciary (high court judgeand above) and that at this current rate of progress itwould take another 55 years to achieve an equal numberof senior female and male judges. 234 According to the mostrecent figures currently available, just over ten percent ofthe 109 High Court Judges are women and just over eightpercent of the 37 Court of Appeal Judges are female. 235This represents particularly poor progress, especially incomparison to the proportion of female judges in otherinternational senior courts (see Table Six). As Justice LadyArden stated:There are far fewer woman Judges in England and Walesthan in many other jurisdictions throughout the world... 236Page 73