Leading female lawyers have blasted their law firms for prejudice against working mothers. The charges were made at the Australian Women Legal conference 2013.
Dianne Beer, special counsel at Herbert Geer, claimed she was frozen out by fellow partners at her pervious firm when she returned to work part-time following the birth of her first child. She said one partner told her he "felt like he was feeding my child” and that she was refused an office. As reported by Lawyers Weekly, Beer resorted to occupying a meeting room to "maximise the inconvenience for other people" until the partnership relented.
On her arrival from Canada six years ago Kristen Lopes, a partner at Colin Biggers & Paisley, discovered that there were no senior women, no working mothers and no flexible working options at her firm. Althiough Lopes now leaves early twice a week to pick up her son, she maintains that prejudice against working mothers remains entrenched within Australian law firms: "until we see more men step into the role of working flexibly it is not going to be normalised”.
An all-male focus group at the conference didn't shower themselves with glory. One lawyer confessed “If I'm looking at a women who's in her late 20s, maybe early 30s, you know she's probably going to leave and have kids so I don't think I'll promote her.”
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Dianne Beer, special counsel at Herbert Geer, claimed she was frozen out by fellow partners at her pervious firm when she returned to work part-time following the birth of her first child. She said one partner told her he "felt like he was feeding my child” and that she was refused an office. As reported by Lawyers Weekly, Beer resorted to occupying a meeting room to "maximise the inconvenience for other people" until the partnership relented.
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Beer explains flexitime: how it might have looked |
On her arrival from Canada six years ago Kristen Lopes, a partner at Colin Biggers & Paisley, discovered that there were no senior women, no working mothers and no flexible working options at her firm. Althiough Lopes now leaves early twice a week to pick up her son, she maintains that prejudice against working mothers remains entrenched within Australian law firms: "until we see more men step into the role of working flexibly it is not going to be normalised”.
An all-male focus group at the conference didn't shower themselves with glory. One lawyer confessed “If I'm looking at a women who's in her late 20s, maybe early 30s, you know she's probably going to leave and have kids so I don't think I'll promote her.”