Women leaders in the legal profession and government mark International Women’s Day
Dana Denis-Smith, the Law Society
Dana Denis-Smith OBE, deputy vice president of the Law Society, said: ‘This International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to reflect, like every year, on how far we’ve come and the work that still needs to be done to achieve gender parity at all levels in the legal profession.
‘Women continue to face barriers such as unequal pay, gender bias, opaque promotion paths and the prospect of having to choose between acceptable work/life balance and career progression.
‘This is alongside inconsistent support around maternity leave, returning to work after career breaks, flexible working and shared parental leave.
‘Flexible and hybrid working remain the most popular requests from our members seeking career progression, while gender pay gaps persist.
‘The Law Society is committed to building a more inclusive profession, because when we do, everyone benefits and our work is focused on turning ambition into action. We should all take action to make the change we want to see in our profession.’
Kirsty Brimelow KC, the Bar Council
Bar Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC highlighted the importance of this year's IWD theme, 'Give to Gain'. She said: '"Give to gain’ is the hand outstretched to women and the steps on the ladder that is kept down. The more spaces that are opened for women to lead, the more strength is built into the world. Inclusive leadership is a powerful driver of innovation and progress.'
Brimelow set one of her priorities this year as 'combating violence against women and girls... a focus of my career and ... as Chair of the Bar. The Government also has a manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
'One area that is overlooked is where women and girls are abused and sometimes killed because the perpetrator, usually a family member, believes them to be a witch. It is 25 years since the Victoria Climbié Independent Statutory inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbié. Victoria was murdered by her great aunt and her great aunt’s boyfriend through belief that she had “demons inside her”. There remains a lack of proper recording of these cases in the Crown Courts, so that appropriate protection can be determined through data analysis. There also is no consideration in sentencing of the belief that drives the harm.
'I will look at whether the Sentencing Council should consider its inclusion as an aggravating factor in sentences. This would serve to mark the serious physical and emotional abuse inflicted on the person by a witchcraft belief and also lead to better caselaw on the extent of the issue.'
Catriona Watt, Fox & Partners, London
Catriona Watt, partner at Fox & Partners writes: ‘Women represent just 15.3% of partners in hedge funds, private equity and other financial services partnerships in the UK, virtually unchanged from the previous year’s 15.4%, according to new data from Fox & Partners, the specialist employment and partnership law firm.
‘Research from Fox & Partners shows that only 794 women were partners at hedge funds, private equity firms and other financial services partnerships, compared to 4,411 male partners.
‘There seems to have been very little progress in gender diversity within these firms over the last two years. One reason may be the pushback against DEI policies, since the election of Donald Trump, is going to see progress continue to slow or even reverse.
‘Whilst the UK and European arms of global financial services firms are not subject to the same kind of pressure as they are in the US, it is hard to argue that the current US Government has created a helpful DEI environment for UK FS businesses.’
Bridgett Phillipson MP, UK Government
The Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, secretary of state for education and minister for women and equalities said: ‘This International Women’s Day, we are celebrating all that women bring to our proud nation, as well as committing to giving back to them.
‘That’s why I am delighted to formally launch employer action plans, which are part of our commitment to ensure women can thrive at work and tackle the gender pay gap.
‘Too many women are still not paid fairly, held back at work due to inconsistencies in support or find common sense adjustments for their health needs overlooked or dismissed. We’re acting to empower women at work and work with business so we all benefit from unleashing women’s talents.’
Professor Jo Delahunty KC
Professor Jo Delahunty KC, 4 PB Chambers, is the author of We Set The Bar: Fighting for Equality, Empowerment and Change within the Legal Profession. She said: ‘We can’t talk about International Women’s Day without confronting domestic abuse and it’s victims. DA is a scourge of society.
'The family court has not alway provided the safe refuge from it that its victims (adult and child ) needed… How should it embrace trauma if [the family court] is to do justice to families in need? How can it be so deaf and dumb to DA after all the years? Why is the child’s voice too often drowned out by the adults?’
Cordella Bart-Stewart, UK Association of Black Judges
Cordella Bart-Stewart, an immigration and asylum specialist and fee-paid judge in the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal, and co-founder of both the Black Solicitors Network and the UK Association of Black Judges, said: 'We see daily that women continue to face inequalities in all areas of life, including professional, but we also see progress. Ministry of Justice 2025 statistics show that women are generally well represented in the professions with 54% of solicitors being female.
'The number of women judges has been increasing steadily, also at 54% when we include all court and tribunal judges (39% of court judges are women). But those figures start to fall as we go up the ranks. Of course we now have a Lady Chief Justice. That is to be celebrated but should not detract from the fact at the highest levels of our court’s women are in a minority. This means continuing to strive for parity by addressing and removing barriers. Society benefits when we listen to women, open up those spaces and give opportunities.'
