Men continue to dominate QC nominations

Only 20% of barristers nominated for the honorary QC title between 2010 and 2012 were women, with 62 of the 81 people put forward in that time being men. The news once again highlights severe problems with the paucity of diversity at the top of the profession. As reported in The Lawyer, of the 46 people appointed honorary QC titles since 2000, only seven were women.

In 2010 one woman was appointed the title out of a group of five, while no women were appointed in 2011. Of the five people awarded the honour in 2012, two were women. Some mitigation may be offered by the fact that most barristers can only be nominated for the QC title after spending many years gaining experience at the Bar, meaning that many recent nominees will have entered the profession during the 1970s and 1980s, a time when the entire profession was unashamedly weighted towards men. Defenders of the Bar will therefore argue that changing attitudes to gender equality will take time to visibly affect the upper reaches of the profession.

Whether this will appease the widespread and justifiable calls for the urgent diversification of a stereotypically privileged profession is doubtful.