An inclusive workplace for women

It is important to understand what your workforce data shows about the representation of women at all levels in your firm. You can benchmark your data against law firms in the sector using our firm diversity data tool. This shows a detailed breakdown for 2025, and you can also look at trends across the legal sector over the past 10 years. This data allows you to monitor your progress and work towards addressing any disparities that women may face in your firm.

A summary of this data should be published as long as it does not lead to the identification of any individuals. This provides transparency for your employees, for job applicants and for clients, and can be an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to an inclusive workplace.

More detailed monitoring of your staff can highlight areas to focus on. For example, there may be certain teams that have an underrepresentation of women, a higher number of women leaving the firm or fewer applications from women for particular roles.

In addition to understanding the diversity breakdown of your staff, gender pay gap data can be incredibly useful to show where there are progression gaps for women in your firm. Since 2017, organisations with 250 or more employees must report on their gender pay gap. The Law Society has produced best-practice guidance on gender pay gap reporting, including encouraging smaller firms to voluntarily report.

To help interpret the statistical data you collect about women in the workplace, some employers also use employee sentiment analysis to understand how their staff are feeling. This can capture their motivations to stay or leave your organisation. If women lawyers are leaving senior roles more frequently than men, sentiment analysis can provide specific information on what interventions might work to address the problem. Exit interviews can also provide valuable insight into employees’ experiences of the workplace environment.

Once you have the evidence to understand what the issues are in your firm, you can use this to monitor progress. Creating an action plan can be a useful way to drive progress, making sure the actions are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of your actions is essential to continuous improvement. To support this many law firms, such as TLT, Linklaters and Browne Jacobson set targets for recruitment at partner level.

These sorts of actions can make a difference and things are improving - our 2025 firm diversity data shows that the proportion of women partners overall in law firms is 40%, which has increased by 8% since 2015, and 3% since 2023.

Practical examples

Reducing gender pay gaps

The Law Society has published a case study from Osborne Clarke on how it increased the number of its women partners and reduced its gender pay gap.

Setting targets

KPMG UK is working toward a minimum of 40% women and 40% men at partner level. KPMG believes this represents an ambitious target, which recognises the moving nature of the firm but sets clear parameters to be met and maintained.

Checklist

Use this checklist to help you understand data, targets and monitoring progress:

• Analyse workforce data on the representation of women
• Benchmark your data against sector trends
• Monitor recruitment, retention and progression outcomes
• Review gender pay gap data
• Gather feedback through surveys and exit interviews
• Create a SMART action plan with clear targets
• Track and evaluate progress regularly

It is important that staff from all backgrounds feel empowered to put themselves forward to apply for new roles. We have highlighted the underrepresentation of women at senior levels, with women making up only 35% of full-equity partners and 49% of salaried partners in 2025. If this is the case in your firm, a bespoke action plan supported by targets can help.

A sponsorship programme can be a way to empower staff to progress within a workplace. Senior staff from similar backgrounds provide insight and mentorship to junior colleagues. This can be a way of actively using the representation you already have at senior levels to make sure this is maintained and improved.

Our resource on recruitment, retention and progression provides further information about this.

Practical examples

Development programmes

White & Case's local women's networks and Global Diversity & Inclusion Committee support the recruitment, retention and progression of women across all levels. This also involves alumni mentoring.

Dentons UK and Middle East LLP have a sponsorship programme called QualiFLY, that offers paralegals and those in other legal roles within the firm to become newly qualified solicitors through a two-year internal sponsorship. This route supports participants financially and developmentally as they study for the SQE. And provides an opportunity for qualification to those who otherwise would have been unable to access the profession.

Checklist

Use this checklist to help support women's career development:

• Encourage women to apply for progression opportunities
• Identify and address barriers to senior progression
• Set targets to improve representation at senior levels
• Provide mentoring and sponsorship opportunities
• Use senior leaders to support and champion talent
• Offer development and training programmes
• Review our recruitment, retention and progression guidance

Flexible working allows employees to adjust their working arrangements. Examples include remote or hybrid working, as well as compressed or staggered hours. This could support staff in various ways, such as supporting a healthy work/life balance to boost productivity. It can also contribute to improved diversity and inclusion in the workplace, particularly for those who may face barriers under traditional working arrangements. 

People with the legal status of employee have a statutory right to apply for flexible working from the first day of employment, and such requests must be dealt with reasonably. This may involve assessing the impact on both the business and the individual and exploring alternatives where the initial request cannot be accommodated.

There is evidence to suggest that remote working has the potential to act as an equaliser for women, particularly if there are progressive attitudes towards gender roles within the household. Other forms of flexible working can also benefit women beyond childcare responsibilities, for example by supporting those experiencing the menopause or conditions such as endometriosis.

Employees may feel more comfortable requesting flexible working if such arrangements are encouraged. Encouraging men to apply for flexible working can help emphasise the shared responsibility of childcare. Research from The Office for Equality and Opportunity found that men were 50 per cent more likely to take parental leave when supported by their manager and other men.

It is important to make sure staff are not unjustifiably rewarded for being present in the office, as this could indirectly impact women or others who work flexibly or remotely.

It may be that it is more difficult to offer flexible working in certain departments because of the nature of the work involved. If this is the case, there may be alternative ways to support parents with childcare responsibilities, such as providing childcare vouchers through your benefits scheme.

Normalising flexible working can contribute to an inclusive work culture that does not see flexible workers as uninterested in career progression. It can also reinforce that flexible working is not just for women to manage childcare responsibilities. There is more about creating an inclusive workplace culture in the next section.

Checklist

Use this checklist to help support flexible working:

• Offer flexible working arrangements where possible
• Encourage all staff to make use of flexible working
• Consider alternatives where requests cannot be accommodated
• Ensure flexible workers are not disadvantaged
• Support parents and carers through workplace benefits
• Promote a culture where flexible working does not limit career progression

Research shows that employee experience and workplace culture are central to improving performance, engagement, productivity and retention across organisations.

Sexism in the workplace can erode psychological safety. It is crucial that your unreasonable behaviour policies reference sexist behaviour and harassment, highlighting zero tolerance.

Think about how you can use inclusive language in your emails and letters as well. Avoid gendered language such as 'Dear Sirs' in salutations. Many firms have moved on from using this outdated term. The assumption that the recipient is a man by default, does not reflect the diversity of the legal profession today. You can use more gender-neutral salutations such as the name of the firm or organisation you're addressing. This is also beneficial to trans and non-binary staff as it avoids stereotyping people according to their sex.

Further guidance on inclusive greetings is included in The Law Society's D&Ictionary.

Staff networks are an effective way to encourage open discussion and shared learning on equality topics. Facilitate staff to develop networks around diversity characteristics or topics such as a menopause network or a parents' network. Have senior leaders in the firm champion and/or sponsor these networks and openly support inclusion for women, for example, by chairing and attending events.

Consider signing up to The Law Society's Women in Law pledge that provides tangible ideas for actions you can take in your workplace.

Checklist

Use this checklist to help create an inclusive workplace:

• Take action to prevent sexism and harassment
• Use inclusive and gender-neutral language
• Support staff networks and inclusion initiatives
• Encourage senior leaders to champion women's inclusion
• Consider signing up to the Women in Law Pledge

Some people who choose to become parents will want to take a career break to care for their children. In many cases, the responsibility for childcare falls to women, often as a matter of choice but sometimes because of traditional expectations in the workplace, or because the gender pay gap means it is more economically viable. As an employer you can help people make the right choices for them by encouraging men to take up flexible working arrangements, so shared parental responsibilities are normalised.

Make sure you support staff who are pregnant by discussing flexible working arrangements and/or workplace accommodations to ensure the environment is safe. This might involve providing a desk chair that is more comfortable or allowing for more breaks.

Provide training for managers on your workplace's approach, ensuring that they are confident to support staff compassionately

Coming back to the workplace after parental leave can be daunting. To support parents, you could:

• offer phased return to work and opportunities to meet new team members
• ensure your policies regarding parental leave are the same for all parents, referring to 'parental leave' is more inclusive than 'maternity' or 'paternity' leave
• make sure you have adequate facilities for parents returning to work, providing private areas and a fridge for staff who are breastfeeding.

It is also important to support staff who may experience pregnancy loss. You could consider proactively exploring flexible working arrangements with affected staff and explicitly mentioning pregnancy loss in your bereavement policy

Read our report on pregnancy and maternity in law firms. It includes a list of simple changes suggested to us by firms that have created meaningful improvements for women.

Practical examples

Parental leave regardless of gender

Ashurst LLP has extended its parental leave policy to all staff regardless of gender across all offices globally. This includes 26 weeks fully paid parental leave for all parents. Not only does this benefit men who want to take more parental leave, but it is also more inclusive of same-sex couples. Ashurst has seen an increase in men taking parental leave. Extended parental leave for men can support women who would like to return to work sooner. It has also introduced other leave options including:

• more flexibility within the first two years of a child's arrival
• the inclusion of surrogacy, foster and kinship care as well as adoption
• five days paid leave per year for anybody accessing fertility treatments
• a reduction in chargeable hours targets for a three-month period following a return to work from extended parental leave.

Career returners programme

DAC Beachcroft has a career returners programme called Reconnect: A Life that Works as You Return to Law. This programme is specifically designed to support individuals who are returning to the profession following an extended career break. This includes people who have taken time out to raise a family, care for dependents, or pursue other interests. It also includes those who are new to DAC Beachcroft.

The programme includes several elements of support aimed at ensuring a smooth transition back to work, such as flexible working, drop-in days, networking opportunities, tailored professional development and mentorship.

Checklist

Use this checklist to help support pregnancy, parental leave and career breaks:

• Support staff during pregnancy and parental leave
• Encourage shared parental responsibilities and flexible working
• Train managers to support staff effectively
• Offer support for parents returning to work
• Provide appropriate facilities for breastfeeding parents
• Support staff experiencing pregnancy loss
• Consider programmes to support career returners and progression opportunities

Everyone's experience of the menopause is different; some will need support or adjustments to maintain their wellbeing and productivity.

Menopause can happen at any age, but typically affects women aged between 45 and 55. The majority of people affected by this will be workers with valuable skillsets who are far ahead in their careers. As well as being the right thing to do to support your staff, it makes business sense to retain such experience.

We produced a webinar around creating a supportive firm culture around menopause, and the Law Society has also produced some guidance on experiencing menopause in the legal profession.

We have set out below an overview of some common symptoms with suggested workplace adjustments that might help:

• Temperature dysregulation - people experiencing menopause often have trouble regulating their body temperature. This can result in hot flushes – or feeling very cold. Workplace adjustments could include providing desk fans or heaters or offering flexible hours to avoid busy communing times.
• Brain fog and migraines - 'brain fog' is characterised by forgetfulness and a lack of mental clarity and workplace adjustments to help manage this or migraines could include flexibility to allow staff to work around their symptoms, making changes to the environment in the office by providing different lighting for example, and implementing other adjustments to help them manage their workload.

Promoting awareness and education about menopause can vastly improve people's workplace experience, as well as empowering staff to ask for the adjustments they may need. You may want to consider:

• providing menopause training to all managers which includes an overview of the symptoms and how to provide workplace adjustments
• making information available to staff, for example the NICE guidelines on menopause and the support you can give as an employer
• encouraging staff networks or other ways to give staff confidence to talk about their experiences.

Checklist

• Consider workplace adjustments for menopause symptoms
• Provide menopause awareness training for managers
• Make information and resources about the menopause available
• Encourage open conversations and staff networks
• Create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture for menopause-related needs

The Equality and Human Rights Commission and ACAS both provide guidance for employers on tackling sexual harassment in the workplace.

The EHRC guidance offers a comprehensive legal explanation and practical examples of how to tackle and respond effectively to harassment, including the legal definitions of harassment and victimisation, the preventive duty and your legal responsibilities. Its eight-step guide on the duty to prevent sexual harassment at work is a useful summary for employers. The ACAS website also provides straightforward guidance with examples.

The Law Society has published general guidance on understanding sexual harassment and guidance for employers, which includes some actions you could take as an employer to help prevent sexual harassment.

We have developed guidance on sexual misconduct. This outlines our expectations for firms to promote and ensure a workplace culture that does not tolerate sexual misconduct.

It is important to make sure you encourage a culture where staff feel able to raise their concerns and complaints are taken seriously. And whether you are advising clients about settling a complaint of sexual harassment or considering a settlement within your own firm, it is important to make sure that you are aware of our Warning Notice on the use of non-disclosure agreements. We are particularly concerned to ensure that NDAs are not used to prevent reporting to us or to other regulators and law enforcement agencies or to prevent disclosures which are protected by law.

Checklist

Use this checklist to help prevent sexual harassment: 

• Take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment
• Promote a culture where concerns can be raised safely
• Take complaints seriously and respond appropriately
• Ensure compliance with our guidance on sexual misconduct and the use of NDAs