A representative from the Black Lawyers Association (BLA), Palesa Ledwaba says more still needs to done to protect women in the legal fraternity as it battles ‘rife sexual harassment’ pushing young women to exit the profession.
Ledwaba made the remarks at a ceremony to commemorate the centenary of the Women Legal Practice Act of 1923 where she said there is an alarming occurrence of sexual harassment within the profession at large and at the BLA.
“This has contributed largely to the exit of many female practitioners, especially young candidates. And it has been called on the BLA to develop policies to deal with this issue. Furthermore, in a seminar which has been held by the BLA to discuss barriers which are faced by women practitioners, the most prevalent barrier identified was the red tape put in place for lucrative work,” said Ledwaba.
Ledwaba said a high number of women practitioners, especially black women, are concentrated in the field of family law and third party litigation.
“There is therefore a need for economic networking to be pursued by the profession. As we celebrate the centenary of the legislation allowing women to practice as attorneys, we need to ensure that the discussion and the submissions that are heard today are not only limited to a day a month but to ensure that they continuously remain on our agendas”.
She added that there is a concern that women still face the same level of “violence, oppression and exploitation” at home, church, in schools and at work and she conceded that more still needs to be done to protect and promote the development of women in the legal fraternity.
“As women who are privileged enough to find themselves in leadership positions, we are obligated to ensure that these discussions continue and they remain at the top of our agendas. We need to align ourselves with the promotion of those who have broken through the barriers and we need to hold one another accountable so as to keep the wheel of change spinning.”
“Some of the measures that need to be put in place are the creation and maintenance of economically beneficial networking amongst female practitioners. This includes preference of female candidates, legal practitioners, appointments of female executives, briefings of female practitioners in lucrative work and lobbying of female candidates for judge appointments,” said Ledwaba.
