To thrive, women lawyers must be equals at home: SC advocate

Panaji: Without equality and equal partnership at home, women will not be able to sustain and persist at the Bar, senior advocate of the Supreme Court, Menaka Guruswamy, said on Friday.
She was speaking at a programme on International Women’s Day organised by the Goa High Court Bar Association. She was told that few women continue in the profession because they are overwhelmed by the responsibilities of home and children, she said.
“The big loss we see at the Bar is of women between the ages of 30 and 45 — the child-rearing period,” she said. “So perhaps the most important choice that a young woman lawyer will make, apart from the choice of your senior, is of a partner who supports your occupational choice, will share work at home, and encourage you to practise law.”
Senior advocate Norma Alvares said many women top the law exams, come to court, but fade away. Some don’t return to the profession while others continue to work, but in the background for their seniors.
She said she returned to law after a ten-year break she took to raise her three sons.
The country needs more judges and more senior lawyers who are women, Guruswamy said.
The Supreme Court has had only 11 women judges in 75 years, which works out to a mere 4% of the total of 276 judges, she said.
In the Supreme Court, 9.4%, or three of the 32 judges, were women as of Dec 2023, she said. Women’s representation in the high courts has increased from 10% in 2018 to 13.4% in 2023. In the district judiciary, the increase has been from 27.6% in 2018 to 36.3% in 2023.
Diversity on the bench is important, with more women and representation from varied castes, where each will bring their own experiences, Guruswamy said. “A judiciary too far removed from society it seeks to serve is a judiciary that will lack any real connection with society,” she said.

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