For more than 100 years, International Women's Day has celebrated the achievements of women and pushed for gender parity. But this year, we've chosen to focus our main feature on the role that men need to play in actually achieving this within the legal profession.

Some may question why we are taking this approach, when men already have ample opportunity to get their voice heard within the profession. The answer to this is quite simple – as men hold the vast majority of leadership roles within law firms, the onus has got to be on them to drive real change.

However, as the revelations of recent months have highlighted, men have clearly been a large part of the problem when it comes to the progress of women in law – as in other industries. Witness the sexual assault scandal at Baker McKenzie, or our survey which found that some two thirds of female lawyers have experienced sexual harassment while working within law firms.