Gender parity: Female lawyers struggle

With 29 years of democracy and 100 years of women lawyers in South Africa, the fight is still on to promote and advance the status of women in the legal profession.

According to the Law Society South Africa, there are about 29 981 practising attorneys and 5 483 candidate attorneys in South Africa.

As at January 2022, an overview of the attorneys’ profession outlined there were 17 267 male attorneys and 12 714 female attorneys, with 15 779 being white and 14 202 being black attorneys.

Negative

South African Women’s Lawyers Association (Sawla) president Nomaswazi Shabangu-Mndawe said although there had been positive effects in many other industries in terms of broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE), with women lawyers it was still negative.

Sawla is a nonprofit organisation established in 2006 by former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla. Sawla’s commitment is the transformation of female lawyers to advance in terms of gender equality.

Shabangu-Mndawe said women lawyers were struggling and it was unfortunate women were still talking about the challenges which existed 100 years ago.

“We are celebrating 100 years since women were allowed to practise law but we are still dealing with challenges that were there back then,” she said.

“Women lawyers are still faced with skew briefing patterns. “I am looking for one person who will tell me that when he or she watches the proceedings in the Constitutional Court.

How many times do you see a woman representing our government, or the corporate sectors? Every time it is men. “And these days there is this trend where you will find the man in the Constitutional Court or in the Supreme Court of Appeal, with the woman sitting next to him. Then you ask yourself, what is this woman doing there?

She is also qualified. She can argue a case.”

Shabangu-Mndawe said Sawla was also working hard to collaborate with other B-BBEE organisations because women were being used as fronts.

“You will find a woman is a director in a law firm, but she can’t even take a decision that will bind the law firm. She is just there to front so that they can be able to get more work,” she said.

Women’s Legal Centre director and activist Seehaam Samaai said South African women lawyers continued to strive towards gender equality in the legal profession.

NOW READ: Women still fighting an uphill battle for representation in legal profession

Underrepresented

But women were still underrepresented in senior positions in law firms and on the bench. Samaai said women continued to experience gender discrimination, unequal pay and sexual harassment in the workplace.

“These challenges have a negative impact on women’s career progression and limit their opportunities to contribute fully to the legal profession,” she said.

Sammai said the major challenges included:

• Deep-rooted cultural attitudes: South Africa’s patriarchal culture remains a significant barrier to gender transformation;

• There institutional biases still exist in the legal profession. For example, women may find it harder to secure appointments or access funding for their practices;

• Access to education: women may also face barriers to education, particularly in rural areas; and v Lack of mentorship and support: many women in the legal profession face a lack of mentorship and support, which can make it challenging to break through the glass ceiling.

Samaai said it was important to work towards addressing these challenges and creating an inclusive and supportive environment for women in the legal profession.

She said law firms should develop and implement policies that promote diversity, equality, inclusion in the workplace and also ensure women have access to equal opportunities for career advancement, professional development, and leadership positions.

“In the next 100 years, we hope to see gender parity in the legal profession, with equal representation of men and women in all areas of practice.

Cultural shift

We would like to see a cultural shift towards greater acceptance of women in the legal profession, with no barriers to entry or advancement,” she said. “We would like to propose that parliament host a joint sitting to recognise the contributions of women lawyers.

“This would be an opportunity for parliament to acknowledge the role that women have played in shaping our legal system and to demonstrate its commitment to promoting gender equality in all aspects of our society.”

Shabangu-Mndawe said Sawla established a development fund to train women so they could be able to compete in all fields of law.

ALSO READ: Celebrating 100 years of women in the legal space

– lungas@citizen.co.za