KUALA LUMPUR – With women making up more than half of lawyers in Malaysia, can it be said that the local legal sector is no longer a male-dominated one?
According to the Malaysian Bar’s new president, Karen Cheah, the fact that women comprise 55% of lawyers does not necessarily mean the legal profession has exited its male-dominated days.
With 33 former Malaysian Bar leaders since 1947, Cheah is only the third woman to hold the post, and the first in 13 years.
The last time the Bar was led by a woman was in 2007 during Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan’s tenure.
Even among the Malaysian Bar’s ranks, only 15 out of the 42 members happen to be women, as pointed out by Cheah.
The good thing is, 50% of office bearers within the Malaysian Bar are women. It is a good number to show that things are not as male-dominated as before.”
“But having said that, it took 13 years for a female Bar president to be elected.
“Superficially it looks no longer male-dominated. However, it does not make sense why so few female presidents are elected,” Cheah said in an interview with The Vibes.
Nevertheless, things are beginning to transform even within the industry itself.
Over the past five to eight years, Cheah pointed out, female lawyers have been changing the landscape with more participation in managerial roles.
Eradicating scourge of sexual harassment
Meanwhile, as the Malaysian Bar potentially moves further away from being perceived as a male-dominated industry, another issue for the legal industry to deal with is sexual harassment.
Last year, a 27-year-old female lawyer was reported to have sued her employer for sexually harassing her over a period of two years.
This prompted the Bar to adopt mechanisms in December last year to combat the situation by categorising sexual harassment as misconduct for lawyers that could result in their disqualification.
Commenting on the matter, Cheah mentions that the issue of sexual harassment is prevalent in all industries, adding that the legal profession has received much attention after cases were highlighted in the media.
However, given that lawyers are the leading law reformists, Cheah says the legal profession should be the first to take steps to eradicate sexual harassment before advocating the same for other sectors.
“There was a movement at one point where law firms were encouraged to adopt mechanisms within the firm to handle such matters.
“In fact, we have revamped our SOPs and made amendments to our rules as well as the Legal Profession Act to include sexual harassment as a misconduct,” she added. – The Vibes, April 20, 2022
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