Every year, on March 8th the world comes together to celebrate International Women's Day (IWD). IWD recognises the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women while also serving as a call to action for accelerating gender equality. IWD helps to spark conversations, initiatives, and events aimed at advancing women's rights and empowerment worldwide.
International Women's Day is assigned a theme every year that reflects current global issues and priorities. Themes in recent years have focused on gender parity, women's economic empowerment, ending violence against women, and promoting women's leadership and participation in decision-making processes. This year, the theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’ which aims to highlight the importance of inclusivity for women and girls in their personal lives, in education and in the workplace.
Stephensons has always championed inclusivity, both in the legal profession as a whole and as an employer. Currently 72% of all employees at Stephensons are female and women are evenly represented at both partner level and on the Stephensons’ Board. Here is a quick breakdown of how things look:
We know that diverse representation at all levels is important, not only in terms of having different perspectives, but also in terms of better governance and stronger overall performance. Stephensons has built a strong foundation on which to build and it is important that we keep that momentum going. One way we can do that is by looking forward; looking to the future of our profession and our firm.
In my role as trainee principal here at Stephensons, it has been fantastic to see so many young women pursuing a career in law and long may that continue. In fact, 78% of our current trainees are women. The majority (over 53%) of our current female partners began their careers here at Stephensons, undertaking their training contracts and working hard to get to where they are today.
Routes to entry into the legal profession have historically been something of a barrier for many women. Whilst it may still not be completely perfect, there are now much more flexible entry points into the profession through non-traditional routes. Stephensons actively promotes and champions a wide range of opportunities to enter the profession including solicitor apprenticeships/CILEX Professional Qualification/qualification by way of the SQE and the traditional training contract route. These routes provide a much more flexible and adaptable way of qualifying.
We also know that organisations themselves need to create an environment where women can thrive professionally and personally. We have various different flexible working arrangements in place with a lot of staff working remotely for most of the time. We encourage a healthy work life balance and better pay equality. It is important that firms can offer bespoke policies to create a more inclusive and supportive work environment.
Happy International Women’s Day!
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