Eversheds joins UK gender equality initiative

Eversheds has become the first law firm to sign up to a new voluntary gender reporting initiative launched by the UK Government. The ‘Think, Act, Report' initiative aims to improve improving transparency on gender equality issues in business by encouraging organizations to investigate and report upon the gender make-up of their own workforces including representation at different levels of seniority, promotion rates by gender, maternity leave returners, staff on flexible hours and any variances between male and female salaries. This information should then be used to address imbalances. Eversheds chairman John Heaps said: "By going public with this issue, it helps to advance the topic of gender equality in the law. I hope that by being open about the issues we face we'll be able to attract more women to the firm, who can see what we're trying to achieve." He added: "It won't change anything we currently do immediately - we've been reporting our diversity statistics internally for three years - but that's not to say we can't do more. At the board level, we've set a target of 30% women by 2015 but current sit at around 27%. In the partnership, we have 23%-24% women and we will be aiming to do better."

Eversheds joins UK gender equality initiative legalweek.com Tue, Sep 20, 2011