CAPE TOWN - Baker McKenzie, a global law firm, says that women constitute 61% in its employees in the Johannesburg office.
According to the Law360’s 2017 Glass Ceiling Report, women make up around one-third of the attorneys in private legal practice. Among the law firms surveyed, just under 23% of the partners are female.
Partner and Head of the Gender Diversity Portfolio, Kate Daniels notes, “We recently conducted an internal survey on gender diversity in our Johannesburg office and found that our female employees did not feel discriminated against in terms of promotion, work allocation or remuneration. These are the three big things every organisation should get right in terms of its gender diversity programme".
The statement released by Baker McKenzie reveals that some of the challenges faced with working with women include: work-life balance and family responsibility and leaving on to go on maternity leave.
To counter these challenges, the firm has implemented the "bAgile programme", which seeks to promote agile working.
“Baker McKenzie has progressive policies with regards to gender diversity and inclusion and this is revealed in the amount of successful female lawyers working for the firm," Jen Stolp, Partner in the Banking & Finance Practice said.
She further shares her sentiments, “Workplace policies play a major role in ensuring that men and women are treated equally in the workplace. For example, policies around parental leave should ensure that both genders are given the opportunity to choose how they will approach parental leave and who will stay at home with the children. It’s those companies that are adopting a more flexible approach to these types of workplace policies that are providing women with the most opportunity to progress”.
- BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE