Gender Equality

Gender Equality

The legal profession in Scotland is one where the majority of new entrants are now female. Since the late 1980s, the gender make up of students starting the LLB  in Scottish Universities has been at least 50/50 female/male. However women are still under-represented at partner level, and in equivalent in-house roles, and take longer to achieve these positions than their male counter-parts.  There is still a substantial gender pay gap.

Male solicitors may find it harder to access flexible working options which their female colleagues access, particularly when they become parents.

In 2019 we conducted in-depth research covering the gender pay gap, flexible working, bullying & harassment and bias to find out what our members told us, and what they thought the solutions are. As a result we have committed to a Gender Equality Action plan.

You can read the details of our research here:  Gender equality round tables  

Information, help and signposting

The causes of the gender pay gap are complex, and are affected by matters like career progression for women, and the impact of flexible working.  These were explored in detail with our members as part of the Gender Equality Roundtables research:  Gender Pay Gap Report, and has been covered in previous Profile of the Profession reports.

Gender pay gap and Equal pay

Gender pay gap and equal pay are often confused with  each other. However they are different concepts:

  • Equal pay means that by law men and women have the legal right to paid the same for equal work. 
  • Gender pay gap is the average difference in pay between men and women, across an organisation or across groups of employees within the same pay bands.

For more information about Equal Pay have a look at  the ACAS website ACAS: Equal Pay. There is also the Equality and Human Rights Commission Statutory Code of Practice on Equal Pay.

Help for employers

Employers with 250 or more employees have been required to publish figures about their gender pay gap since 2017. 

We encourage firms and organisations with less than 250 employees to publish their own gender pay gap, which we at the Law Society have done since 2018.  We also encourage firms to publish their gender pay gap for partners and principles. 

Guidance on complying with the requirements, whether voluntarily or compulsory can be found on the UK Government's website Gender pay gap reporting: Overview.

Once a gender pay gap has been identified what can you do?

Our comprehensive menopause support guide, produced in partnership with Peppy, is designed to help individuals and firms access the support they need, with information, advice and further resources to explore.

Additional information from ACAS is available: Managing the effects of the menopause: Menopause at work

This is a set of 12 guides for solicitors and others working in legal services providing help and advice on issues which arise when becoming a parent in the profession. .

The guides are aimed at those about to embark on or return from a period of maternity, shared parental or adoption leave and their line managers. They feature real-life case studies from men and women working across the profession – thank you to those who contributed to the guides. We hope you find them useful.

The guides were produced in conjunction with The Talent Keepers.

Flexible working is a term which covers many different ways of working, whether that be hybrid working (partly in a workplace and partly at home), part-time working, or condensed hours. 

We have published Flexible Working Advice and Information informed by the experiences of law firms who have successful flexible working policies.  

ACAS has also published advice on flexible working as follows:

 

Our research in this area

Since 2005 we have gathered information from our membership. For some areas we have completed targeted research, which is then built on through our regular Profile of the Profession research.  We also collect diversity data every two years from the membership when members renew their practising certificate most recently   Reserach listed here is specific to the area of gender equality

In the second half of 2019, we asked members to host roundtables focusing primarily on gender equality. Organisations – law firms, in-house teams and local faculties - hosted these and the discussions focused on a number of important matters. These organisations sent in their findings and we’ve compiled overview documents on four main topics: flexible working, bias, bullying & harassment and the gender pay gap. The findings in the four areas informed the development of the Gender Equality Action plan

Read the Gender pay gap report

Read the Bullying and harassment report

Read the Flexible working report

Read the Bias report

In November 2015 we published a series of recommendations in our paper responding to the Judicial Appointments Board Diversity Steering Group (DSG) report from its conference, 'Merit and Diversity - Compatible Aspirations in Judicial Appointments?'

Read our response

The Society and the Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland jointly commissioned this study into the position of women in the legal profession in Scotland because of the perception that women appeared to be obtaining proportionally fewer senior positions in practice or the public sector. There was very little recent empirical research into the accuracy of such perceptions.

The Society's thanks go to Moira MacMillan, Dr Nick McKerrell, Angus McFadyen and their supporting teams for their work on this project.

Read the Executive Summary

Read the Full Report

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