The Gazette 1978

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.)

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.

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

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