Women's Network

Earlier this year, the Law Society of Northern Ireland launched its Women’s Network. When I heard a Women’s Network was being created, I knew I had to be involved though I never anticipated being appointed as the first Chair.

Why, in 2025, do we need a Women’s Network?

I can understand that question. More than a couple of years ago now, a much younger Claire McAleer sat in a lecture theatre in Lennoxvale, training to qualify as a solicitor in a predominantly female cohort. I felt so fortunate to live in a time where women had achieved equality.

Until I realised that they haven’t. For me, my lived experience as a mother was my feminist awakening. Sadly, it feels like ‘feminism’ has now replaced the four letter ‘f’ word as the worst of words, but I am using it regardless, and I hope you’ll sit with your discomfort and stay with me.

Feminism isn’t about angry women hating men. It is about challenging the system - the patriarchy- which puts women at a disadvantage for no reason other than the fact that they are women. Feminism is about equality, yes, but also equity. It’s not about women trying to be men, it’s about us trying to be women in a world that was never designed for us- for our skills, our challenges and our realities.

How is this relevant to the legal profession in Northern Ireland? Well, while a younger, fresher Claire may have been right in recognising that what was once a predominantly male profession is now predominantly female, we are struggling to retain our female solicitors. We are seeing a significant amount of women solicitors leaving private practice, often the profession entirely, and I was one of them.

For those women who do remain, we are not seeing them ascend through the profession to partnership, or indeed to sitting on the Society Council.

This is not a new trend. Research in the 1990s showed the issues with female solicitors leaving the profession. As the trend has not changed, despite increasing numbers of women entering the profession, the Society has taken action and created the Women’s Network.

The Women’s Network was set up by the Society with a Steering Group of female solicitors who have now been joined by Local Association representatives, and who I would like to publicly thank for all their hard work and commitment to date in coordinating the Network. Our aim is to amplify female voices and experiences and make the profession somewhere that women not only fit but have room to grow.

Peer support is invaluable, something that I really experienced during my eight years away from the profession. In that time, I did both paid and unpaid work in the community and voluntary sector. Witnessing the power in women sharing their lived experience with each other, finding common ground and community, was life-changing for me. It set me on a path of always trying to use my voice and share my experiences because there will always be someone that needs to hear it.

The Women’s Network provides this peer support, and I have loved seeing this and its impact in real time at the events we have hosted since our creation.

Our aim is to hold three events a quarter - one in Belfast, one online and one in a Local Association. Earlier, I mentioned the need for equity - we are keen to address additional barriers to rural female professionals. Events being mainly in Belfast is a barrier to all those women in practice outside of the city, particularly when you factor in things like school drop off on top of the time (and cost) of travel.

Most recently, we held an event on the importance of networking in Dungannon led by Lynette Fay. While the information shared by Lynette was important, what really struck me from the day was how when one woman opened up, the other women joined in to share their experiences and to support and encourage each other. I’m proud that at this early stage the Network is already providing a safe and comfortable space for women to open up and share with each other.

Through our events to date, there has been one common thread that has run through them all, from the women leading the sessions to the attendees - confidence. And as one male attendee of our Women in Leadership event with Dr Esther McGuinness and Justice Minister, Naomi Long, remarked, he could never imagine sitting in a room of men and a lack of confidence being discussed. I had to admire his honesty!

Our first Association event was in Omagh and was a public speaking session with former solicitor, Sinead Lunny, of Vocalis Public Speaking. A couple of weeks after the event, a colleague I view as extremely confident and accomplished let me know how she used the techniques learned at this seminar to help deal with her nerves. I could never have imagined this woman being nervous. As well as being delighted that our seminar had such an immediate impact, I have to be honest that I also got reassurance and community in the revelation that this colleague got nervous!

I also attended a ‘Next 100 years: Women in Law’ event in London to meet English colleagues and learn from what they are doing and, again, the same common threads appeared in my conversations there. How we navigate caring for relatives, whether to have a family, juggling our responsibilities as well as the expectations of those around us, and of ourselves and, of course, a lack of confidence.

The more that we have these conversations, the more awareness is raised and the more we are able to identify the barriers. This is important because, once we see them, we can work on removing them. Which is what the Women’s Network is all about- with a bit of craic and plenty of nibbles along the way.

We have a programme of events scheduled into 2026, full details of which will be shared on the Women’s Network page of the Society’s website, and you can also sign up to our mailing list by contacting womensnetwork@lawsoc-ni.org

As you will no doubt be aware, Council elections are coming up in November and the Network is keen to support any women who are interested in running for election. Some of the current female Council members were on hand on 17 September to answer questions on the realities of being on Council, and we also have a recorded webinar in the Women’s Network section of the Society’s website giving information on the process, as well as lived experience of female Council members.

If we are to bring meaningful change, Council needs to be representative of the profession it represents, which means more women around that table, speaking to the lived experience of female solicitors in Northern Ireland and creating that space for us to join, remain and thrive in the solicitor profession in Northern Ireland.

Claire McAleer, Chair Women’s Network