The legal profession in Bangladesh has traditionally been male-dominated, and women have faced significant challenges in entering and succeeding in the field. During my court visits, I noticed that there were fewer women in the court than men.
As an aspiring advocate, it was only natural that I was disappointed to see such a gender imbalance in our legal profession. Data shows that, as of March 2021, there were 10,373 members in the Supreme Court Bar Associations, among them only 1,636 were women.
This prompted me to consult with some of the female lawyers I know in order to understand why this is the case. They shared their experiences working in this male-dominated field with me, and I will discuss the barriers they mentioned in this article because having more women in the legal profession is critical, and there is an urgent need to identify and remove these barriers.
The first barrier is family pressure to marry and then have children and care for them and her husband, sacrificing their career in the process.
The second barrier is that of not having access to the resources or support necessary to pursue a legal career, such as equal access to education or networking opportunities.
The third barrier is that our courts are not women-friendly. According to a study conducted in Dhaka, Khulna, and Kushtia between April 2017 and May 2018 by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the environment of our courts is not friendly for women because they experience sexual harassment, gender bias, and there is also a lack of adequate female restrooms, among other things.
The majority of our law chambers also lack basic facilities such as daycare centers, which may help more women to stay in the profession.
Suria Begum, an advocate of the Bangladesh Supreme Court with over 27 years of experience in the field, provided a more in-depth insight into the barriers when I interviewed her about them.
She said, "The very fundamental pattern of Bangladeshi society is one of male chauvinism and misogyny. This is why the family of any woman motivated to take the legal profession as her occupation does not provide her with full-fledged support. They believe that it is safer and more secure for a woman to go for a corporate job rather than choosing an independent profession like law."
She added, "It is not easy to find a female senior under whom you can learn. Many women do not find it safe to work under male seniors and thus they opt for a different career altogether. On the other hand, clients do not want to consult female lawyers as the clients hold a condescending perspective towards them. As such, women find it difficult to survive in the profession."
On top of that many employers do not want to hire female lawyers. They believe that women will find it difficult to devote enough time after marriage due to the added responsibilities or leave the profession entirely.
Given the current situation, it is critical that women in the legal profession band together to speak out about these barriers and take collective action to have them removed, and I strongly believe that women's empowerment is essential to accomplishing this. Women's empowerment means the process of increasing the social, economic, and political power of women and ensuring that they have equal access to opportunities, resources, and decision-making.
It is also important to note that legal and financial empowerment of women benefits society as a whole. The McKinsey Global Institute revealed in a report titled The Power of Parity: How Advancing Women's Equality Can Add $12 Trillion to Global Growth that "in a full potential scenario in which women play an identical role in labour markets to that of men, as much as $28 trillion could be added to global annual GDP by 2025."
Bangladesh has made significant progress in various fields regarding women's empowerment over the last few decades. Our government has taken several steps to increase the representation of women in the legal profession, including providing training and support to women lawyers and promoting gender equality in the legal profession.
However, progress in the legal profession is excruciatingly slow. Thus, a significant increase in efforts and steps taken to encourage and support women to pursue careers in the legal profession, as well as to address gender-based discrimination and bias that women may face in the legal profession, is required.
Faria Rahman Moushume, Law Graduate from UAP-UMSAILS LLM Programme, Legal intern at Abdul Matin Khasru & Associates
