the battle against discrimination still rages on

Fifty years ago, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 came into force, protecting men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status, covering employment, training, education and harassment. Since then, we have seen significant progress for women working in the legal sector, who now make up more than half of the profession.

Despite this progress, the majority still consider sex discrimination to be prevalent in the profession. The latest research from Next 100 Years found that 63% of women surveyed had personally experienced discriminatory behaviour in the workplace in the last five years — albeit not as overtly as in the past — and 84% know of colleagues who had experienced discriminatory behaviour during this time. After all these years, the battle is still ongoing.

These findings come at a time when US President Donald Trump’s war on DEI is having a chilling effect. While only big international law firms are suffering the direct consequences, this agenda is having a wider impact, with references to DEI removed from websites and publicity around partner promotions remaining silent on diversity.

Gains of recent decades have been hard won, and the legal profession must redouble its commitment to equality in the workplace

It would be easy to put the problem down to a few rogue individuals or ‘dinosaurs’ in the profession, but our research found that 47% of respondents thought discrimination came from people across the board — with only a third believing it was limited to a few individuals who were outliers. Worryingly, leadership was considered a source by a third of respondents.

On a more positive note, just 14% thought this behaviour was prevalent in younger male colleagues, suggesting we might see a decline as the next generation climbs up the ranks.

While 51% of respondents said their organisation took alleged incidents of sex discrimination seriously, in many cases women still don’t feel they can speak up — 70% said that they, or one of their colleagues, had not complained about discrimination for fear it would affect their careers.

As well as tackling poor behaviour through training and actioning complaints robustly, firm leaders need to make it okay for women to report discrimination. It’s about fostering a culture where there’s no fear of repercussions for victims, regardless of the seniority of the staff implicated.

Looking at the future of the profession, we are a long way from seeing the level of change we need. Only 16% of survey respondents expect women in law to get true equality in their careers, with 47% saying it’d take another half a century.

Tackling ongoing sex discrimination requires a focused effort from individual organisations and the profession as a whole. I hope that initiatives such as the Harman review — an independent review of bullying and harassment at the Bar, which includes sexual harassment — will go some way to addressing these issues. The gains of recent decades have been hard won, and the legal profession must redouble its commitment to equality in the workplace.