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Equality: getting back on track

29 January 2021 / Dana Denis-Smith
Issue: 7918 / Categories: Features , Profession , Equality
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The impacts of COVID-19 risk turning back the clock on women’s equality: Dana Denis-Smith lays out a road to recovery

It has been widely reported that the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns have had a disproportionate impact on women. They are more likely than men to pick up the additional work within the home associated with educating and caring for their children, even when both parents are at home and work full-time. They are also more likely to work in positions that have been furloughed or made redundant.

Our own survey of women in the legal profession, conducted during the spring lockdown of 2020 and then again in October, have tracked women’s experiences through the pandemic, which at the outset saw women lawyers experiencing exhaustion as they tried to balance childcare with work.

Six months after the first lockdown, almost a quarter still had not seen their incomes return to pre-coronavirus levels, with one in five working less than their previous working hours.

32% worked for organisations which had made redundancies

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
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Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
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