SIX months into her role with a major city law firm, new graduate Courtney Bowie was diagnosed with anxiety, chronic migraines and at risk of burn out.

The “boys’ club” mentality had Bowie feeling disillusioned, since her first post-graduation role with a local law firm had offered her a supportive and encouraging — if not very exciting — introduction to the legal profession.

“There were a lot of young women lawyers all trying to get to the same place so rather than a sense of comraderie, it was very, very competitive among the females in the workplace.”

“The pressure was higher, the support was lower, the work was monotonous — bank recoveries! — and the attitude was very much ‘sink or swim’,” she says.

“I’d made the decision to be a small fish in a big pond, but the dog eat dog mentality was beyond what I could have imagined.

“Young women know it’s a boys’ club and they have to work harder than men to get ahead. That isn’t to say you don’t make great friends, but it’s exhaustingly competitive.”

Bowie decided to play along with the firm’s mantra: “work hard, play hard” until her health broke down under the strain of long hours and little support and she took a medical leave of absence.

Bowie’s experience may reflect a greater disillusionment women in the legal profession are experiencing — after the initial excitement and determination that has driven the number of female graduates to outnumber males for over a decade now.

According to President of the NSW Law Society, Pauline Wright, “for a long time now, women have represented over 50% of graduates and professionals. We expected to see greater representation [of women] in senior positions. The annual report just released reveals that this is far from the case right now.”

The National Solicitors Report, released annually by the NSW Law Society, reveals that while the number of women in leadership roles has almost doubled, this is still not in proportion with the number of women in the industry overall. In the past five years, the number of legal professionals has increased to almost 72,000 in Australia, with women making up 60% of solicitors.

While the number of female solicitors (60%) in the profession dominates, the workplace environment is divided much less equally. Women solicitors are in the minority when it comes to private practice. Most women tend to work in the corporate and government sectors and the numbers indicate that the majority of women solicitors have five years’ experience or under. The majority of women barristers have under 10 years of experience and make up only 30% of barristers in Australia.

Are female lawyers being discriminated against by employers, or are they not applying and pursuing senior roles out of a lack of confidence? There are no clear answers, but some feel that workplace culture is to blame.

CULTURAL CHANGE IS HAPPENING

While Melbourne lawyer Bridie Boyle doesn’t feel she has experienced a “boy’s club”, she believes the changes taking place now will take a long time to really be felt.

“It’s not as though there’s some terrible conspiracy ... but the culture will take a long time to really change.”

Boyle worked in a top tier law firm for 18 months before transitioning to a mid-tier law firm with a more progressive approach to equality for male and female lawyers.

“I think the reason women aren’t represented at the bar or in equity partnerships is cultural. It’s a huge change over the past 50 years to have equal, or more, women in the workplace. Law is a profession infused with male privilege, which I experienced working in a top tier law firm in litigation. There were very few women as equity partners.”

It was a senior partner at the mid-tier firm who lamented to Boyle that skilled and eminently capable women lawyers were not pursuing senior positions and showing greater doubt and lack of confidence in themselves as professionals which was stark in contrast to the cocky confidence of many male lawyers who were quick to compete, to take on extra work, to claim knowledge.

“He believed boys were conditioned to be overconfident decision makers whereas female lawyers are conditioned to believe they’re impostors, not smart enough or not ready. That conditioning starts from the way we’re brought up and cultural ideas ingrained from early on.”

This ingrained cultural expectation might explain the lack of women represented at the bar. While solicitors work in a collaborative atmosphere where sharing information, asking questions and relying debriefs with colleagues is part of the work, barristers are sole traders who cannot practice in law firms. Gaining clients and briefs is a competitive venture and often leads to late nights, tense and emotional clients, the pressure of assets, relationships, reputation and ego at stake.

Boyle was once determined she’d do the exams and apply to the bar, but ultimately decided the intensity of the hours and the work were too demanding. She witnessed colleagues who moved from solicitors to barristers receiving the raised eyebrow and surprise they’d leave the security of ongoing work for a barrister’s life.

“Law is an incredibly collegiate work culture. A law firm is the product of shared knowledge and ideas bounced off colleagues. When you’re on your own you don’t have that anymore.”

“A lot of law is very transactional, collaborative and cooperative,” she explains.

“There’s a seeking for resolution, whereas when a matter has to go to court it becomes a fight and to go to the bar means your bread and butter is arguing and battling daily. It felt like a cop out when I decided I wasn’t going to do it. I didn’t know that I could handle the intense, constant stress of fighting with other people all the time. The intensity, the crazy late nights and constant need to perform and be exposed was something I didn’t want in my life.”

HOW MORE WOMEN CAN REACH LEADERSHIP ROLES

Thankfully, there is inevitability about the profession becoming more progressive: Flexible hours, leadership pathways, representation at the bar and in the judges’ realm. In fact, from 2006 to 2016, the number of female judges rose from 24% to 36%.

After 20 years in practice, Director at law firm, People + Culture Strategies, Kathryn Dent has experienced a more realistic representation of the report findings in her work life. “Our leadership team is 67% female and 60% of our directors are female so we have no problems modelling gender diversity in our senior ranks.”

With an increasingly female-centric workforce, there are many and varied role models for the recent graduates and the many young female lawyers with less than a decade of experience. The work of ensuring equality of opportunity, pay, leadership and representation at the bar and as judges does not rest solely on women’s shoulders.

“My female mentors and role models include many of my clients and friends who, like me, manage to combine their career and family,” says Dent.

“I also admire people like Liz Broderick, a trailblazing female partner at the then Blake Dawson Waldron. She tells the story of how at one point in time, multiple pregnancies within her team compelled the changes to the way they worked, and no doubt influenced firm-wide change.

“She has now gone on to have a successful post private practice career working to highlight and eliminate sex discrimination and sexual harassment and her energy and enthusiasm for those challenges seems boundless.

“I’m also heartened by the fact that I work in a jurisdiction where female commissioners and judicial members at the Fair Work Commission are not uncommon and we’ve recently applauded the first female High Court judge.

“I think we should also recognise that there are many male role models and mentors in the legal system who champion women by exposing them to opportunities for development and promotion, and ensuring the elimination or discouragement of discriminatory practices. Increasing the presence and seniority of women in law firms is not the realm of females alone.”