Cherie Blair has revealed that she was discouraged from pursuing her high-flying career in law because of her gender in a recent video interview.
Blair, who is a prominent Queen’s Counsel (QC), said she was called to the Bar in 1976 and invited to make a speech. However, Lord Denning then told her that ‘the Bar really isn’t the place for women’. “It wasn’t exactly the most encouraging way to start,” Blair said.
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Year later, when she was pregnant with her first child Euan, she described being “so determined to prove to those men in chambers that I was going to come back [after giving birth]. I came back very quickly… The only previous time they had a woman in chambers, as soon as she had babies, she left.”
She also faced sexism when filling in the details on her Bar certificate. She explained that she did not want to put my father’s name and occupation on the certificate.
“He left my mother when I was eight and hasn’t been involved in my upbringing,” she said. “This is my mother’s achievement.” However, she was told that nobody ever wanted to put their mother’s name on the certificate before.
“I insisted,” she said. “And indeed, they put it on.”
Workplace equality
Her words come just months after the UK celebrated 100 years of women’s right to vote in the UK. During the century that followed women’s suffrage, the Employment Equality Act, the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act all came into law, specifically enhancing and protecting women’s rights in the workplace.
However, there is still a long way to go before the UK reaches full equality between the sexes at work. A factor commonly cited as hindering the levelling out of pay is a lack of women at the top. Whilst women have transcended many barriers, there’s still limited representation at the top.
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Vicky Pryce, who sits on the Board of Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and is the former Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service, believes that what’s missing are senior female role models.
She welcomes the idea of regulation – or better yet voluntary methods – for forcing firms to embrace a target for women in senior positions and to make this public. The 30% Club, a campaign group designed to improve female representation in the Boardroom, has also been encouraging firms to embrace quotas.
Since it launched in 2010, female representation figures on UK Boards has increased to 28.4% from 12.5%. Targets combined with measures such as mentoring programmes and women’s networks can help to create stronger pipelines of women too.
However, as Pryce points out, businesses need to make the working environment a lot more accommodating of women. “Out with the long hours culture, after work socialising with clients, weekends playing golf while clinching the deal or seeing women as a costly risk,” she explained.
“Instead, we need to promote flexible working, job sharing at senior levels, promotions during maternity leave, a programme for returnees and continued training for women.”
