b'BACK TO NAVIGATIONChallenges and Opportunities There are fundamental issues that transcend the COVID recovery pressures and require ongoing attention. Female representation has now grown to 57 per cent of the legal staff for AusLSA Members, yet they still only occupy 32 per cent of partner positions. The role of understanding the reasons why this imbalance has occurred belongs to all members of the firm (both male and female) and must not be left solely to managing partners or boards.It will take some time for each firm to understand the actual impacts on gender equality outcomes. Firstly, during times of business stress, the supporting or operational roles are commonly the first to be affected by redundancies, restructures, retrenchments, and reductions in hours. In AusLSA, law firms operational and non-professional staff are 79 per cent female.Secondly, the rates of promotions are likely to be impacted by commercial uncertainty. If the rates of promotions slow, so will the pace for adjustment of gender balance in senior positions.Thirdly, COVID created an increased reliance on unpaid family and community caring roles following the closure of childcare, schools, and personal care services. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency found that, on average, women spend sixty-four per cent of their working hours with no remuneration compared to men (thirty-six per cent). The additional demands of professional and home duties created by COVID may disproportionately impact womens wellbeing, professional performance, and opportunity for progression.Law firms need to have approaches to deal with equality on three related fronts, 1.Managing the adverse impacts on women and their careers brought about through remote working, and balancing carer and other work life pressures 2.Addressing the emerging disparity of opportunity in the post-COVID period where hybrid working may advantage those with greater ability to return to traditional ways of working and disadvantage those who still need to work flexibly3.Supporting and improving the ongoing programs aimed at improving womens rewards, security wellbeing and prospects in each firmLaw firms could address the residual COVID pressures and impacts on women in several ways.Actively encouraging and supporting men in utilising parental leave and carers leave to share both the sacrifices and rewards of carer roles.Considering how they can more directly support employees with the practical provision of these carer roles, including childcare support, coaching, and targeted wellbeing support.By working to better understand the competing needs of women in the workplace, firms can respond by providing solutions to manage these demands, including flexible working hours, additional leave or concessions on performance assessments that consider extenuating circumstances.Providing training that addresses unconscious gender bias and provides monitoring of critical processes to ensure identification where it may occurAnd finally, while it is uncomfortable to discuss and accept, domestic violence is a real part of our community, and the stresses and compressed living caused by COVID are a catalyst for increased occurrences of this. Unfortunately, ethnicity, religion, social class, and educational or professional background do not provide immunity from this problem. Employers have both a legal and moral responsibility to support victims of domestic and family violence.Apart from responding to COVID, firms also need to continue with the fundamental changes required. The Law Council of Australia survey National Attrition and Reengagement Survey highlighted the need to focus on a range of priority changes to address the causes including,Career path transformationLeadership and role modellingRelationships and supportThe Women in Leadership: Lessons from Australian companies leading the way report identifies the ten common features of leading organisations that are dismantling barriers to womens participation at senior levels.The process recommended by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and detailed in their Gender Strategy Toolkit identifies the following key actions:AnalyseUnderstand the firms gender equality status - Conduct a gender pay gap analysis and understand gender pay gapsAssess barriers to women progressing to leadership rolesDesignIdentify the best interventions and set targets to address the identified inequalitiesImplementDevelop and deliver action plans - Measurable effectiveness against. ReviewRegularly assess the effectiveness of actions against targets and review the impacts on the identified barriers Modify and update the design and implementation of the strategy to respond and consider new opportunities 23'