In Bangladesh, not only are women legal professionals fighting for their clients in courtrooms, they are constantly battling for their own rights at the same time.
There are several provisions in the Constitution, domestic statutes (e.g. the Penal Code and the Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain), and international commitments (e.g. CEDAW, ICCPR, among others) to prevent this. Despite such measures, women legal professionals are restricted from the same career opportunities as their male counterparts. These barriers arise in the form of both explicit and implicit bias. They stem from the institutionalised gender inequality found in Bangladeshi society from generations of conforming to stereotypical gender roles.
These barriers are hardly confined to Bangladesh. The existence of gender bias in courtrooms has persisted through the ages in countries like the United States and United Kingdom for the exact same reasons: perceived gender roles.
This is blatant in the 2001 study of courtrooms in Virginia by Washington and Lee University that unearthed demeaning and unprofessional treatment of women lawyers, discretionary payments, and lack of accommodating facilities in courtrooms, leading to low female participation in the profession.
Another instance of a recent bias was in 2017, when the New York Times reported despite 50.3% of law graduates being females, only 35% were practicing lawyers. Furthermore, females comprised 18% of all partners in the top ten law firms in the US. Professional services firm PwC confirmed the same for senior partners in the top ten law firms in the UK.
This lack of representation at higher positions points to a more pressing issue of courtroom workplaces not being conducive for women legal professionals to properly advance in their careers.
Equal representation in the justice sector is significant as it increases accessibility for communities, ensures legitimacy of the principles upheld by courts, and creates role models for young girls.
To handle these challenges, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and Christian Aid put together the PoWER Project. PoWER, the Participation of Women in Establishing their Rights, aimed to address this troubling reality to come up with feasible solutions.
The PoWER initiative sought to encourage greater participation of women in the legal profession and increase gender sensitivity among justice sector actors. It identified practical difficulties women legal professionals faced in courtrooms across three different districts in Bangladesh: Dhaka, Khulna, and Kushtia.
The research was conducted through interviews of judges, lawyers, and courtroom staff. All three districts concluded the same key findings: gender discrimination and sexual harassment is prominent amongst women legal professionals not only in perceptions and attitudes of colleagues, clients, and family, but also perpetrated implicitly through courtroom infrastructure and available facilities. For example, the lack of female washrooms in the Dhaka Judge Court entirely creates an unnecessary obstacle for women legal professionals who are then expected to use washrooms in the adjacent Bar Association building.
These revelations are identical to the earlier mentioned study by Washington and Lee University.
BLAST held a National Conference on Women in Justice: Equality and Inclusion, in May 2018. Many esteemed members of the legal profession, including lawyers, judges, and academics, came together on a platform to discuss barriers and policy suggestions head on.
Specific recommendations for the district courts and Bar Associations included gender sensitivity training programmes and providing accommodating facilities for women; such as babysitting and child care centres.
Contrary to the Bangladesh Bar Council in its 'Canons of Professional Conduct and Etiquette', the American Bar Association does explicitly address discrimination and harassment as ethical violations in their 'Model Rules of Professional Conduct'. Although not sufficiently, this provides for a standard of accountability when situations arise. The Bangladesh Bar Council should commit to protecting its own lawyers, and ensure gender equality and consequences for individuals who fail to comply.
With regards to sexual harassment, the Supreme Court judgment on Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) v Government of Bangladesh (2008) provides prevention guidelines, including establishing sexual harassment complaint committees that are gravely missing and must be executed immediately. More importantly, there needs to be awareness of these guidelines. The PoWER research discovered that although judges knew about the judgment, most lawyers remained unaware.
One of the best ways to address gender bias, implicit or otherwise, is through education. Weaving gender sensitivity training into discussions in schools and universities will raise awareness of gender bias and help keep it from occurring. These proposals can assemble more favourable and welcoming atmospheres for women, which in turn will increase female participation. The struggle for gender equality is constant. The prevalence of preconceived notions pertaining to the 'ideal role' of a woman are obsolete in today's society and only works to create an atmosphere of male dominance in the legal sector. Until this can be addressed, the entire justice system of Bangladesh sits on its own profoundly skewed scale.
Nabihah Rana is a freelance contributor
