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GAZETTE
MARCH 1978
SOCIETY OF YOUNG SOLICITORS
Women and the Law
(Consequent upon the Society's requestfor articles of general interest to theprofession thefollowing article was received
from a lady solicitor. For reasons not altogether abstruseshewouldratherremainanonymous.)
In this wonderful world of sex equality, of chairpersons
and spokespersons, some might think that the women's
cause has little to complain about. Look at the job
advertisement columns and the careful wording. The
newspapers state that "All vacancies advertised are open
to male and female applicants except for those categories
specifically excluded under the Employment Equality
Act." The job advertisers cannot afford to offend the law
— or women of Ireland.
However, there is a small group of solicitors, all of
whom are qualified over five years, who happen to be
women, and who recently found themselves discussing
their own careers. They soon realised that they had
difficulty in convincing themselves that they were part of
the wonderful world of sex equality and they were not at
all comforted or impressed with this realisation. Each
woman at random picked three male colleagues who
qualified in the same year as herself and now worked in
the same area of the law as herself and in the same part of
the country and each of them realised that they did not
have the same status in their profession as their male
colleagues and were less well-off financially. They then
looked beyond the legal profession and re-did their sums
and saw that women are still a tiny minority in business
and industrial life — the sums did not show that there are
any more women managing directors or any more women
pilots or any more women in the Inner Bar or on the
Bench or even just full-blooded partners in law firms. This
group of women solicitors concluded that as soon as
women realise they have been codded, they could actively
anticipate a massive rebellion on women's rights.
The legal porofession for all its conservatism and
tradition has never shown any barriers to woman
entrants. The statistics show that more and more women
are making with the law as a career. For example, in
1960, 30 new solicitors were entered on the roll of
solicitors, 2 were women, that is 6.3%. In 1976, 105 new
solicitors were entered in the roll of solicitors, 35 were
women, that is 33.3%. In the years 1976-77 almost 40%
of the apprentices who were enrolled with the Law
Society for lectures were female. The legal profession
where there never apparently has been any professed
discrimination has not much to show for all the years of
equality. Of course, it is true females in the profession are
now numerically strong but they have never shown even a
modest influence. A pilot survey of solicitors admitted
within the last five years was carried out in October 1977
and the usable responses to this survey fell neatly into the
proportion 33|% female (25 respondents) and 66j%
male (50 respondents). The results were interesting. Of
those from whom data is available 22% are partners in
their firms; 29% of the males in the survey were partners
in their firms; 9% of the females in the survey were
partners. Of those qualified one to two years, only 10%of
the females as against 24% of the males have achieved
partnership status. Another interesting indication arising
out of this survey was that it would appear that male
solicitors were significantly more likely to work in the
large partnerships than the female solicitor. Is this a
function of choice or opportunity on the females' part?
There have been only two female appointments to the
District Court and there are only two females on the
Council of the Incorporated Law Society.
There are predictable lines of argument from many of
the talented and yet undiscovered sisters of the law. Yes,
the structures of the law were conditioned for a man's
world and women consequently are a token force. They
have become conditioned to the psychological notion that
women do not become Judges or Senior Counsel or just
equal partners because there are not the precedents. They
are simply the chatties of many a law firm, they will never
see the El Dorado of partnership.
They are shunted into quiet cul de sacs spending their
days ploughing through titles of housing estates, churning
out the uncomplicated probates and dealing with the
general difficult clients. They never travel the broad
highways of promotion and advancement.
Yes it is true but it doesn't meet the whole truth. The
blame must be apportioned a little more broadly. We
blame society and the structures and maybe the
government and they are all easy targets. But the women,
our women, who have fallen into a languid state with their
chosen career, should maybe do a little critical self-exam-
ination. Maybe they have slipped into a fatalistic notion
that they cannot really get on and say they don't really
bother. Tess Higgins of the Institute of Public Adminis-
tration was recently critical of her own sex for being less
than ambitious. Many women could not face up to the
fact that to be promoted they had to leave the jobs they
were in. She said: 'Often they do not face up to this until
they have been in their organisation so long that it is all so
cosy that it is hard to take a leap in the dark. It needs to
be brought home to them that they may have to lose
something in the short term to gain in the long run."
The law in Ireland has many rewards. The young
women of Ireland who are choosing or have chosen law
as a career deserve to share in these rewards but recog-
nition or the will to succeed is their business.
DID YOU KNOW THAT
(1) The law relating to words of limitation in convey-
ances to corporations is different from that relating to
conveyances to individuals. So far as a corporation
aggregate is concerned it has long been settled at common
law that a conveyance to a corporation by its corporate
name gives it a fee simple without any need for words of
limitation.
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