TIME TO PUT CERTAIN BEHAVIOURS IN THE PAST
After all the education, the training, and the experience, imagine what it’s like to be told you simply don’t look like a lawyer.
While the face of the profession is changing with 43% of Ontario lawyers being women and the proportion of racialized lawyers in Ontario doubling in recent years, lawyers of racialized backgrounds – and especially racialized women lawyers – continue to be subject to behaviours that make them feel isolated or excluded in the profession.
Female lawyers of color were eight times more likely than white men to report that they had been mistaken for custodial staff, administrative staff, or court personnel, with 57% reporting mistaken identity. Over 50% of white women had also experienced this type of bias, while only 7% of white male lawyers were mistaken for non-lawyers.
In general workplace settings, women are twice as likely as men to have been mistaken for someone in a more junior position. Black women in particular deal with a greater variety of micro-aggressions and are more likely than other women to have their judgement questions in their area of expertise.
Unconscious biases exist, but with awareness we can do better at improving our behaviours to create a more welcoming and opening profession.