Unconscious bias training is the least effective way to improve diversity, according to the results of a survey by the International Bar Association seen exclusively by the Gazette.  

Research to mark International Women's Day today shows that the training, which seeks to make people aware of deep-seated prejudice, is one of the most popular initiatives used by law firms to address gender imbalance.  

Of the 50 firms that responded, 76% use it, but it was perceived to be the least effective measure, with only 21% saying that it was 'very effective' and 14% stating that it was 'not effective'.  

Office training session

Although 76% of firms use unconscious bias training, it was perceived to be the least effective measure

Source: iStock

Despite this, the report said that firms 'remain committed to continuing with the policy' and it is compulsory in many noted. 

Sara Carnegie, the IBA’s director of legal projects, said the findings raise the question as to why firms do not abandon it. She suggested that unconscious bias training is a 'cheaper and fairly straightforward tick box exercise to ensure an organisation looks like it is being proactive'.   

The report revealed that flexible working arrangements, used by 94% of all respondents, are felt to be the most effective, with 53% reporting that they are ‘very effective’.  

While quotas were the least popular initiative, they were found to be 'very effective' at driving change by 50% of those law firms who implemented them. 

The report, which provides a snapshot of gender diversity in the UK legal profession, is part of a nine-year global study by the IBA and publishers LexisNexis. The project is designed to develop a blueprint for achieving gender parity at the highest levels of the legal profession by 2030. Women make up 51% of UK lawyers, but only account for 32% of those in senior roles, the study found.  

The public sector has the strongest female representation. In the four government departments surveyed – the Government Legal Department, Crown Prosecution Service, Serious Fraud Office and HM Revenue & Customs – 64% of all lawyers and 57% of those in senior roles were women.  

The report found that the Government Legal Department now has to make 'efforts to attract men, to ensure that the balance does not tip too far'. The department told the Gazette that 64% of all its employees and 58.5% of senior civil servant grades, 'identify as women'.

 

This article is now closed for comment.