ABSTRACT
A series of studies of women in the legal profession in the late 1990s, in the UK and Anglo-Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Australia and Canada, revealed that, although women had been entering the profession in significant numbers for over fifteen years, they were still regarded very much as professional ‘outsiders’.1 Legal practice remained not only numerically but also culturally maledominated. Subsequent studies of professional socialisation and the self-images projected by the solicitors’ and barristers’ branches of the profession in recruitment materials indicate that, ten years on, and despite rapidly declining numerical dominance, the legal field continues to be characterised by the cultural domination of white, middle-class men, and the marginalisation of women and other non-traditional entrants.2
