Women Admitted To The Bar Up By 80%

Fiji’s legal profession has recorded an increase of up to 80 per cent admission of women to the bar.

Fiji Law Society president Laurel Vaurasi revealed this yesterday. She was officiating at the Fiji Women Lawyers Association luncheon held at the Governor’s Restaurant in Suva.

The luncheon was to commemorate International Women’s Day, with the theme ‘Each for Equal’.

“Today, I am proud to say that we have had 80 per cent admission as women lawyers,” Ms Vaurasi said.

“However, there still needs to be more mentoring done, the senior lawyers need to mentor and encourage the young lawyers.

“Now with such an influx of younger lawyers, we need more women in chief executive officers (CEOs) posts as well.

“The thing is we must encourage women in these CEO positions, don’t take the back seat.”

She said it was important for women to cultivate the confidence in themselves and take the bold step of trying out leadership roles within the fraternity.

“It is one thing to talk about it and there is another thing to have the courage to take a step further and say yes I will apply to become a magistrate,” she said.

“Less than 10 women are serving on the bench in our judicial system right now as judges all over the country. This needs to change and we need to empower more women.

“Today we just want to talk about our challenges and the importance of taking that bold step forward because there continues to be opposition in all aspects.”

She said it was also important that women don’t wait to be pushed ahead, but rather efforts were to come from within their hearts.

“There are people who will think it will be impossible for a woman to become a chief justice; some think it’s impossible for women to apply for positions that men are in and it is so important that women are convicted to not just talk about it but put your hand up and take that bold step.

“If women don’t stand up then we will only be talking about it,” she said. Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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