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As a women who achieved partnership in 3 firms before moving in house I found the gender of the people much less significant than their character. However I did regularly wonder if I was being discriminated against when in the middle of serious commercial discussions around the partnership table some male partners just literally ignored what I said , talking over me, not letting me finish sentences or not responding to my point at all. They may have done so because they didn't think what I had to say was worth saying. However I had a large department bringing in the 3rd largest fees in a firm with 12 departments. So perhaps they didn't like me. I can't know for sure. What I can say is that it felt like being female and successful did not get me he same response as my male colleagues who achieved.

To get my point across I found myself become more and more strident - "why has no one bothered answering my question? hello am I invisible here...etc". Yes awful and strident. I found really I had to be more assertive than I'd have liked to be heard. Then I was accused of being aggressive.

I suspect experiences like that is what is meant of unconscious bias.

I can see that lots of men are offended by being accused of discrimination, understandably. And of course all men are not all discriminatory. Maybe there are lots of discriminating women.

But I think the point is more about being ( as is mostly the case) a minority and that many women find it difficult to operate in the male clubs many partnerships seem to emulate. It is a reflection of society that many places are heavily "occupied" by men, including the Judiciary and board rooms. Law firms are no different.

However because our partnerships are mainly (60%) male it is the men that need to ensure they are treating the women fairly because the women in the minority cannot do that.

And yes there are some truly awful women partners - but that is about character not gender.