Suggestions on Gender (and other) Imbalances

ANNA BELGIORNO-NETTIS
Volume 10, Issue 5
First: congratulations De Minimis for acknowledging the gender imbalance in your writers. It was brave to highlight that less than 38% of your writers last semester were female, although over 50% of your audience are women. That step of acknowledging an issue is essential to reflecting on it and solving it.

There is imbalance regarding many aspects in our law school (and wider) community – sexuality, race and disability to name a few.  What is however particularly striking about the women imbalance is that we are not a minority. As De Minimis mentioned and I have researched, female students have made up approximately 55% of our cohort for at least the last eight years.

I’ve spent a significant part of my year researching the gender imbalance in another area of law school: representative leadership, specifically in the President position of the Melbourne University Law Students’ Society (MULSS). Here’s a snapshot of what I found and what I’d suggest as a way to solve gender (and other) imbalances (the full article is being peer reviewed for November publication - stay tuned!):

• Let’s address the issue as soon as we can: much of the research into gender imbalance in the law focuses on the working legal community. There are well-established statistics that most law graduates are females yet women fill less than 25% of the law’s senior positions. And there are many initiatives like the Victorian Bar’s Quantum Leap that address the shortage of female leaders in the workforce. But there is much less focus on the preceding issue of gender imbalance in leadership or other areas in law school. I encourage everyone to start documenting that, and set up initiatives that focus on issues of imbalance already here at university.
• Reframe how we talk about areas with imbalance: what are the first words you think of when I say “leader”? Strong? Decisive? Commanding? Dominating? How about generous? Reflective? Soft? Facilitative? If we reframe how we approach areas of imbalance – whether in the articles we expect in publications, or the people we expect in leadership positions - it opens up the door to diversity and defying stereotypes. Not just for women, but for anyone that doesn’t fit the dominant mould.
• Don’t worry about the competition – worry about why you care: in areas of imbalance, someone else is filling that leadership spot or writing that article. If we want to increase the representation of under-represented groups, it inevitably means decreasing the representation of over-represented ones. In a nutshell: if you’re in that under-represented group, you’ll need to compete. Structures such as quotas, diversity mechanisms and policies can help, but unfortunately a lot of the work still rests with you. So my advice? Don’t let competition change your mind! If you truly want that opportunity, don’t think about who else is going for it.  Think about how much you can contribute if you do get that chance.
• Seeing is believing: my research into Victorian law student society Presidencies highlighted what a difference seeing a woman in the role made to other women considering nomination. Thinking about this can help  when you’re  going for an opportunity with an imbalance you can fix. You have the chance to not only improve the imbalance in your time - you can transform that imbalance for all those that might consider it after seeing you there, and believing they can be there too. So go for it! And help us get that much-needed balance. ​

Anna Belgiorno-Nettis is a third-year JD student and President of the Law Students' Society

 
The rest of this week's issue:​

• Interview with Justice Neave
• The Perks and Quirks of Law School Spaces
• How to Study when your Uterus is Trying to Kill you
• Olympisms

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• The Hidden Gender of Law: 25th Anniversary
• The Law and Sexual Violence: A Troubled Relationship