Combining an international outlook with traditional Asian values and culture, Hong Kong is often lauded as an open society guided by more progressive social ethos, which includes gender equality.
The impression was further cemented when Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s first female leader, was appointed in 2017, beating Western powers like the U.S. in having a woman in the top job.
But contrary to the perception, the international financial hub has been grappling with the issue of gender disparity in both the general workforce as well as boardrooms. And when it comes to Hong Kong’s legal industry, women are not only outnumbered, but also struggle to be treated as equals. Well-educated and driven, some female lawyers still find themselves fending off gender-related obstacles every day in a working environment dictated by a patriarchal rulebook, according to a survey conducted by Mayer Brown and Women in Law Hong Kong.
Amita Haylock, a partner at Mayer Brown who co-chairs the firm’s Asia Women’s Network, tells ALB the reason for the launching the "Everyday Behaviour Project" was to gather more empirical data on an anecdotal speculation of gender inequality apparently entrenched in Hong Kong’s legal industry.
“We now understand some of the issues or microaggressions women are continuing to face through the results of the survey,” says Haylock.
“According to EBP survey respondents, gender bias is a key contributing factor leading to the exit of women from the legal profession. The responses received under the survey is that women have to contend with barriers, ranging from unwanted comments about their appearance, overt and covert displays of bias to active discrimination and exclusion- simply because of their gender. There will be other reasons as well,” she adds.
The survey drew responses of more than 360 women and men who are currently working or have worked in the Hong Kong legal sector. Some of the key findings include that 23.7 percent of female respondents have been told to change their specialty in law or career paths because of their gender, and 26.1 percent have negative experiences of receiving comments or advice on their clothing choices at work. More than half of the female respondents felt they were treated differently because they were women.
“The behaviours and experiences our survey flags need to be acknowledged by all organisations in Hong Kong’s legal sector, whether private practice or in-house,” says Haylock.
She notes that a desired short-term outcome for change is greater awareness. “As for long-term, of course we want to see a more balanced gender ratio at senior as well as the junior end of the legal profession,” she adds.
In Hong Kong, 65 percent of trainee solicitors are women, as are 51 percent of solicitors with a practicing certificate – something worth cheering. But look closer, and you’ll find that only 30 percent of partners are female. Haylock believes there’re a few things need to be done to improve the status quo.
“Number one is we simply welcome more male allies. The value male allies give in an organisation cannot be underestimated in helping people to realise that gender imbalance is not a ‘woman’s’ or ‘minority’ issue, rather it’s something all of us regardless of gender can benefit from,” says Haylock.
The ways that men can step up for their female colleagues and to advance gender equality in their workplace including advocating for commitments to improving the numbers of women in leadership, which Haylock thinks will produce an environment where people generally feel that success is obtainable for them.
In addition, “working women still struggle disproportionately with caring responsibilities. Organisational policies such as flexible working as to time or location reduce some of this clash – but encouraging men to take it up as well should help us all to balance work and life more effectively,” she adds.
Apart from looking for allies, Haylock urges women as individuals to shoulder the responsibility of checking the biases of theirs and others'.
“We need to make sure we are particularly sensitive to biases that can have a big impact at different stages of the employee life cycle. For example, recruitment, screening, interview panels, lateral hiring, and internal promotion. Candidates should have the same ability to perform well at any of these critical stages, regardless of gender,” explains Haylock.
“My hope is that within a few years we can repeat the survey, get even more responses across the legal sectors, and crucially show progress, with different, more positive results. I encourage law firms and other organisations to adopt our survey results – and even run their own,” says Haylock, adding that law firms should do more to capitalise on the commercial benefits of gender diversity.
