Sexism

I know that this site is rapidly becoming a cross between Jeremy Clarkson and the Daily Mail, but I’m sure it’s not me: the world actually is going mad. According to Dawn Dixon, Chair of the Association of Women Solicitors, in an interview by journalist Selena Masson, “…women are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the traditional long hours culture but nothing appears to be getting done and it is high time the profession recognized the potentially detrimental effects on the workplace culture, productivity and profit and the loss of female talent that this situation may give rise to”. Dixon adds, “I am often contacted by members who have returned from maternity leave only to be told that they remained on the same PQE (Post Qualification Experience) in relation to salary reviews. Their male counterparts, however, who had not been on maternity leave, had progressed to the next year’s PQE salary bracket, thereby receiving a higher salary”. This is described by Masson as one of the “horror stories of maternity discrimination” with which “the profession is rife”.

So let’s get this straight. Basically, women are disenchanted with the legal profession because firms are unwilling to pay them for long hours that they don’t actually want to work or to bump them up a PQE pay bracket for which they haven’t actually acquired the requisite additional PQE. Like, duh. I am sure that men are similarly disenchanted by the rotten stickler firms in this regard. The only difference is that men are less likely to have the option of leaving the profession, wreaking further collateral damage to the culture, productivity and profit of firms, because they are still much less likely than women to have the option of deciding to stay at home, while another member of the household chases the pay cheque.

Dixon has one last piece of advice: open your own firm. Apparently, “then you can work as flexibly as you want in your nightgown at 10 o'clock in the morning with the children playing away in the corner!”. How lovely. I can only wish you all the best of luck with that, ladies.

Labels: law