How fair is Britain?

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Recent research claims that the ‘inherently masculine’ UK legal profession still has a long way to go before it achieves an acceptable level of diversity and equality.Its working patterns and general culture are geared towards men and it is characterised by ‘possibly unwitting’ biases against professionals who are non-white or from lower socio-economic groups.

The research, funded by the Legal Services Board and written by the University of Westminster, is shaming stuff.

By way of contrast, the research’s publication coincides with a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that paints a picture of the UK as a tolerant and open-minded society. Our citizens, and that includes the legal profession, support the generic principles of equality, are accepting of diversity and are opposed to discrimination.

Less than 20 years, for example, separates the parliamentary debate about Section 28, which controversially banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools, and the debate about civil partnerships. That’s real progress.

And yet, paradoxically, we are also willing to accept a society where the rich, as though by a pre-ordained right, live longer and healthier lives, go to better schools and universities, and get the plum jobs, the report says.

It is a society that jails a disproportionate number of black people, has doubled since 1995 the number of women it imprisons and, despite sex discrimination laws, routinely pays females less than their male counterparts.

But before we despair at the injustice of it all, the EHRC report’s authors point to City firm Herbert Smith commercial property partner Shelagh McKibbin, who has been working flexibly for the last 12 years. She says: ‘I was a partner in the firm when I had my third child, very soon after having my second. It was having two close together that I found particularly difficult and I decided to resign.’

Herbert Smith was keen to keep her, however, and agreed a working arrangement that allowed her to work full time during term, but have extra days off during school holidays. It is an arrangement that has worked well. McKibbin says: ‘Clients nowadays do not necessarily expect you to be sitting at your desk as it is now much easier to work at a distance. Enlightened employers understand that.’

She adds, however, that ‘despite flexible working, many women are not interested in going through to partnership, perhaps because they feel it would not be compatible with family life’.

So what’s the truth? How fair is Britain? To which we can only reply: fairly fair, but getting fairer.

Is that a fair assessment?

Diversity in the legal profession in England & Wales: a qualitative study of barriers and individual choices was launched on 13 October 2010. Written by the University of Westminster Law School and funded by the Legal Services Board.
The EHRC report How fair is Britain? was released 11 October 2010.