Need To Introspect Why Many Women Are Unwilling To Continue In Legal Profession: Justice BV Nagarathna

Supreme Court Judge, Justice BV Nagarathna recently expressed concerns over the gendered prejudices that lead to women quitting the legal profession. 

Speaking at gender sensitisation event at the Madras High Court on December 7, Justice Nagarathna highlighted the need for the legal fraternity to introspect on the social factors that may be hindering women from sustaining in the legal profession in the long run.  She opined : 

"One way to deal with such prejudice is to closely introspect power, privilege and dominance in different settings. For e.g. there are more women than men in certain service sectors such as nursing. On the other hand, in the judiciary, it is predominantly filled with male Judges. This is the same as regards advocates who are designated as senior advocates. Therefore, even though a lot of women are beginning to enter this noble profession, it must be examined why they are unwilling or what hinders them from continuing in this profession. Without such introspection, these gender issues may be rendered invisible." 

She further stressed that it was important to seek honest feedback from the survivors of gender discrimination and neutrally view the workplace dynamics within the law industry. 

"During such introspection, it is also important that those in power obtain the views of those who are disadvantaged, rather than they assuming themselves about the issues plaguing them. In our context, because the relative position of women and men in general may be different, the nature of the issues and the analysis is not parallel, and gender specificity may be necessary to achieve gender equality.This can be done only if those who have the power of redressal, listen to the victims of gender inequality."

Justice Nagarathna explained the concept of 'Epistemic Injustice' propounded by Philosopher Miranda Ficker. The notion of Epistemic Injustice denotes the discrimination and social prejudice one faces due gender, social background, ethnicity, race, sexuality, tone of voice, accent etc. She exemplified it further : 

"For e.g., in a predominantly male dominated workforce, when women are promoted to higher positions, there is a tendency amongst some to comment that such women got promoted simply because they are women. In other words, their prejudice prevents them from looking into the merit of the women in reaching those positions. Many of them think that such women may not be knowledgeable or slow in their work. In such cases, women are then required to work doubly hard than men in similar positions to simply demonstrate that they are equally meritorious and talented and are capable of hard work both at office as well as at home."

"While when men are promoted or elevated to higher positions, such a thinking does not arise, are in almost every case, it is considered deserving. The men have no concerns such as justifying their appointment by their able performance. "  

In terms of women's participation in the judiciary, Justice Nagarathna diverted attention to three main phenomena: (I) the entry of women into the legal profession; (II) the retention of women and growth of their numbers in the profession; and (III) the advancement of women, in numbers, to senior echelons of the profession. 

She expressed how due to the 'lax attitude' of individuals towards women in authority, such women are pushed to portray themselves as hard task master, concealing their caring and considerate side of the persona. However, she added that "Unfortunately, even this response by women perpetuates further prejudices against them in the workplace." 

Elaborating on the two types of sexism that prevail as a result of such a prejudice against women, Justice Nagarathna said :

"First is hostile sexism, which involves antipathy and negative stereotypes about women, such as beliefs that women are incompetent, overly emotional etc. It also involves beliefs that men should be more powerful than women and fears that women will try to take power from men."

"The second way is more subtle. It is called benevolent sexism, where people have overall positive views of women, but only as long as they occupy traditionally feminine roles." 

Resultantly, such a sexist attitude is manifested amongst those equal to or senior to women in the workplace. Often times, it is reflected in assigning either too menial tasks stagnating the professional growth or too complex tasks to shrug off responsibility and possible criticism from others. 

Justice Nagarathna concluded her address by urging the need to shun social stigma of being 'Paraye Ghar ki Ladki' (belonging to somebody else's house) that female children encounter within their households.