Jane Needham SC and Kate Eastman SC join Catherine Roberts, Change Makers Podcast Host and Global Strategic Client Director at Thomson Reuters Legal, Asia and Emerging Markets, for episode five, A Push for Gender Equality at the Bar. The program focuses on the conditions experienced among women at the Bar and how the legal profession can do better.

Catherine interviews Kate and Jane on a range of topics, from flexibility in the workplace and childcare considerations for Barrister parents - a concept that Jane copped flack for introducing to chambers as the former President of the New South Wales Bar Association some years ago - to bullying and harassment and the future generation of barristers. 

Both successful Barristers have earned their stripes in the profession with decades of experience and legal accolades tied to their names. Jane was previously President of the NSW Bar Association and her legal expertise has a focus on Equity and Succession Law and has appeared in significant Inquiries and Inquests. They include the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Kate’s areas of practice are Employment, Discrimination, and Human Rights. She has been recognised throughout her career with awards including the Women Lawyers’ Association “Change Champion of the Year Award”. Both Barristers have been actively vocal on gender equality and Equitable Briefing and pushed for change on various fronts. 

When Jane Needham SC became a Barrister some four decades ago, her gender cut a lonely figure at the Bar. Being the only woman in the room was her day to day experience in the profession - whether it was courtroom conference or her legal clients - her colleagues were mostly all men. 

While the numbers are slightly better than they used to be, the award winning Barrister, who is renowned for striving to make the Bar a better place to work, believes the Bar ought to start looking at appointing more female practitioners into leadership roles rather than just making up gender diverse numbers.

“I do think that women in leadership is a real challenge for women at the Bar, because there are so few female silks (we have around ten percent of silks who are women). There aren't that many role models, because there just aren't many of us, with one or two [male] appointments and we go under the ten percent again,” she says on the Change Makers Podcast.

For a young woman whose career ambition is to become a sole practitioner or Barrister, it can be difficult to find a role model. To this, Jane encourages women lawyers to look to the historical achievements of those in the profession who have pushed for progress historically.

“It's really important to look to the people who've done the work, who've done the hard yards and really fought against much more apparent barriers than we have. I'm thinking of people like the late Jane Matthews [and] Ruth McColl, who has recently retired. They’re leaders who've really made a difference and who've put themselves out there and have achieved, and I think we need to look at that as well as develop the younger women who are coming through.”

Kate Eastman SC agrees with Jane, citing that there's so few women as Senior Counsel even today.

“We might make up 10% of all Senior Counsel, but we're actually 1.2% of the entire Bar,” she says. 

On becoming more vocal

Unlike her colleague Jane, Kate’s experience of entering the profession did not involve being the only woman in the room. However, over time she realised how far the profession needed to adapt for Barristers with...