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Having observed the Victorian experience over almost 30 years and seeing the changes that I have, and they have been significant changes, it seems to me that the time had come to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our gender in the law and assess strategies for moving forward.
As women progress, those who succeed cannot rely solely on their example. They ought use their achievement to expressly and practically support the development and promotion of younger women in the law. It is imperative that the hand be cast down to the generation below to pull up the women from the previous generation to the next.
And above all, women need to keep gender on the agenda. Perseverance is the ultimate imperative in promoting difference.
I commend VWL for its energy and enthusiam in promoting the interests of women in the law and am proud to be its Patron.
WORD FROM THE CONVENOR
At a time when 70 per cent of law graduates are female yet only 20 per cent are female partners, Victorian Women Lawyers has an important role to play within the Victorian legal profession in keeping the issue of women’s advancement on the political, economic social and human rights agenda. The organization has been operating since 1996 and is as relevant today as it was at its inception.
The profession has certainly opened up to women but now it faces challenges in keeping them. Law firms are forced to tackle retention rates in more efficient and innovative ways. VWL is helping through its research, forums, seminars and relationships with academics, sponsor firms and other professional organisations to thrash out the complexities involved in managing flexible work arrangements, family responsibilities, paid maternity leave, amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, and effective mentoring.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission says that work-life balance is the concept of the 21st century. We are experiencing a real shift in the way we think about work, family and lifestyle, paving the way for organizations such as VWL to make a meaningful contribution to the debate through its close connection to the legal profession at all levels.
The Victorian Government has recognized the importance of legislating against discrimination on the basis of an employer, a principal or a firm unreasonably refusing to accommodate a person’s parental or carer responsibilities in relation to work arrangements in its family responsibility amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act which came into effect on 1 September 2008.
At a federal level, the government has signed the optional protocol to the United National Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, allowing Australian women to complain to the UN if their rights are violated and all domestic remedies are exhausted.
We are making inroads for a better way of working in the profession and for a cultural shift from the traditional ways of thinking about the legal sphere. The time is ripe to continue the debate for women’s advancement with rigour and passion.
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