Lack of flexibility tempering female lawyers’ aspirations

Posted in Latest News on 13 Aug 2015

Flexibility and work life balance concerns are turning a third of all female lawyers off the idea of partnership. Data collected in our 2015 Salary and Benefits Benchmarker shows that 37% of all female lawyers have no partner level ambition, and 38% of those cited flexibility and work-life balance as the reason for that. 31% cited the stress associated with partnership as the main reason they would not be looking to climb the ladder.

Employers could be doing more to retain ambitious female legal professionals, as only 21% of those who aspired to partnership firmly believed they would achieve that with their current firm. The perception of a glass ceiling however seems to be less relevant in the modern legal profession – only 5% of all women lawyers cited this as the main reason they did not want to make partnership.

Kathryn Riley, Managing Director comments “Two thirds of the female lawyers who have turned their back on the prospect of partnership have done so because of the stress and lack of flexibility at the top level of the legal profession. It’s not an issue that is unique to the legal sector but the bottom line is a lot of talented people are slipping through the net.”

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