This week has seen many International Women’s Day celebrations and events take place throughout the country and in fact all over the world. It’s been great to see that this wonderful annual event has been used to not only debate issues facing women, but also to reflect on achievements, and to also look at what can be improved moving forward.
One of the events I attended this week, was the UN Women IWD Breakfast at the Brisbane Convention Centre. One of the panel members was Therese Rein who provided a glimpse into the parental leave policy of Sweden and suggests that this might be a model for Australia to consider. Essentially in Sweden both parents are able to share the parental leave of up to 480 days. As a a result both men and women experience what Ms Rein referred to as ‘career interruptus’ and Swedish accounting firms and law firms are factoring this into everyday workforce planning. This approach is normalising ‘parental leave’ for all of their professionals. Certainly food for thought! See the link below for more information on the Swedish Approach.
At another IWD event, the Women in Law Project was launched yesterday in Melbourne. The project is being undertaken by The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. The aim of this project is to better understand the issues leading to high attrition rates for women in the law.
With the ever increasing demand for talented legal professionals, this is not just an issue just for female lawyers but for the profession as a whole. To take part in this project complete the survey and encourage your colleagues to do the same.
Further information + Official Websites
Gender Equality: The Swedish Approach
Susannah Moran’s column Prejudice in today’s edition of The Australian 9 March 2012 Survey Women Lawyers
The number of women in law has been a talking point within the profession for some time now. As their presence continues to increase particularly amongst the graduate ranks we see that women now make up almost half the number of lawyers at 46%. What is disheartening however from this statistic, is that only 16% [...]
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Gone are the days when a well-compiled CV printed on smooth paper was enough to impress employers when job-searching. For many of us, CV’s were only ever updated when it came time to make a move, but now employers and companies are looking at LinkedIn profiles for ‘headhunting’ as well as in their selection and [...]
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Welcome to 2012. By now, you have most likely returned from a great holiday in the sun (or snow, if you prefer the cold), and it will soon be time to get back into the full swing of things for the new year. Just this thought may remind you of the long list of [...]
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In leadership, there are many skills that contribute to being an effective leader. What sometimes gets forgotten is that mentoring is a vital leadership skill, which helps employees grow professionally. Not only does it aid in attracting and retaining talent but it says something about the culture of an organisation and its commitment to people [...]
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Written on
November 20, 2011 by
Alex in
Career Advancement,
Law Firm Management,
Law firms,
Planning,
Promotion,
Soft Skills,
Talent Development,
Time billing,
Uncategorized,
Work/Life Balance
For many of us, delegating is a skillful art that we think only a handful of people will ever master. One of the biggest challenges for many young lawyers is learning how to best make use of time and resources by delegating tasks or projects. Though the “I’ll do it myself” mentality is “the norm” [...]
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As we come to the end of November, many of us are already talking about what will be achieved in 2012. And so we should be!!! Whether we are planning exciting overseas holidays, renovations, changing careers or finally clinching that promotion, planning is fundamental to achieving goals. Although some may be put off by [...]
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Time, it is more often our enemy than it is our friend. We fight to have more of it in order to meet deadlines, network, spend time with loved ones, enjoy our successes or just think! Peter Bregman’s article, What to do when you have no time to think reminds us that making time to [...]
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Through the ages, societal factors have been known to marginalise and hold women back professionally, but as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg suggests maybe women play a role in limiting their potential as well. Sandberg addressed the graduates of Barnard University in Boston, discussing an issue of importance; the lack of women in top rank positions [...]
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Second-tier lawyers may well become a thing of the future with US-based law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe creating a new role within the legal industry. As Career Associates, these lawyers will not end up as partners or earn the same money as their colleagues will, but many are choosing this path to have more [...]
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This week has seen many International Women’s Day celebrations and events take place throughout the country and in fact all over the world. It’s been great to see that this wonderful annual event has been used to not only debate issues facing women, but also to reflect on achievements, and to also look at what can be improved moving forward.