Women lawyers fear pregnancy may stall their careers: survey

Policies, attitudes at work need to change to accommodate working mothers, say women.

A survey of women lawyers in India has uncovered a worrying phenomenon: more than half the respondents (54%) felt that a maternity break adversely affected their career.

The survey conducted by Rainmaker, a legal resources firm, was released on Tuesday. “We undertook this study to understand why such few women lawyers get to the top. Do they have to pay a motherhood penalty and what feasible measures can organisations adopt to retain talented women,” said Sonal Makhija, who conducted the nine month study with Swagata Raha. The researchers contacted 150 lawyers from top corporate law firms, legal departments of companies and those in litigation practice. Eighty one respondents completed the survey.

Women working with law firms appeared to be worst affected, with 75% saying that a maternity break adversely affected their career, followed by women in litigation or court practice.

A significant number of respondents claimed to have taken extended maternity breaks, primarily driven by a need to be with the child and the lack of childcare support options. “I used to leave my daughter with my maid in the Supreme Court car park till she was almost seven months,” Haripriya Padmanabhan, a Delhi-based lawyer, told the researchers.

The report states that while childcare and family responsibilities may be considered personal pressures, they translate into barriers if policies do not factor the needs and requirements of working fathers and mothers.

However, law firms claim the 'adverse impact' is not really related to maternity. “A long break of more than a year in anyone's career for any reason, including a sabbatical, needs that extra effort to bring it back on track. We do give women the option of flexi-timings once they resume work after maternity leave. We have instances of colleagues with very young children who are managing admirably with the flexibility given by the firm," said Shivpriya Nanda, partner, J Sagar Associates. Nanda claimed that in her 25-year legal career, being away from work on maternity leave after the birth of her two children had little adverse impact.

Yet, a majority of women in law firms and companies believed that informing their employer about their pregnancy affected their bonus and promotion or led to reallocation of work.

At least three respondents from law firms said they faced insensitive behaviour from a partner or client including being forced to travel in the third trimester or being denied option to work from home in a risky pregnancy. A large number of respondents in companies felt that their bosses and colleagues were understanding and accommodating.