There may be a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite its devastating impact both on human life and the global economy, women in the workforce may benefit from the move to remote working. This was the view of the GCs and senior in-house lawyers who participated in Burford’s 2020 Equity Project Study.

Several senior in-house lawyers interviewed for the research noted that the shift toward remote working is in many circumstances normalizing work from home arrangements and adjusting expectations in a way that levels the playing field for women. The pandemic may act as a force multiplier for gender equality in white-collar workplaces where presenteeism is still part and parcel of the culture, particularly for law firms.

Barriers to Gender Equality