The law is slowly confronting its toxic culture of sexual harassment. The Dyson Heydon allegations will only speed things up…….
The law is slow to change. For almost 30 years, the majority of law graduates in Australia have been women. And yet, when these brilliant young women enter the workplace, out-competing all their fellow graduates for a bottom-rung position at a top law firm or a prestigious posting as a judge’s associate, their bosses are still, invariably men.
“We still do have mostly men in positions of power,” says Kate Jenkins, the Australian sex discrimination commissioner. “Men who do identify with often the accused more than the victim, who haven’t had the experience of being harassed but do look at these things and question – not only ‘I can’t believe he did it’ but also ‘I’d hate to think people thought I did it’.”
The legal profession in Australia has long known it has a sexual harassment problem. A 2019 report by the International Bar Association found that 47% of women and 13% of men working in the law in Australia had experienced workplace sexual harassment, higher than a global average of 37% of women and 7% of men.
Well worth reading the full report..
