Why Should Lawyers Care About Women's Rights?

One of New Perimeter’s key areas of focus is promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality. Through New Perimeter, teams of DLA Piper lawyers have worked on projects to promote financial inclusion for women in Africa, to support their involvement in law and policy development in Asia, and to combat domestic violence in South America, among others. Our lawyers provide legal counsel to a variety of organizations undertaking vital work in the area of women’s and girls’ rights, including CARE, The Global Fund for Women, UNICEF, Room to Read and Women Win.

Why should lawyers at a law firm care about women’s rights on a global scale? Our view is that every global company or organization interested in supporting legal and economic development worldwide should care about women’s rights. When it created New Perimeter, DLA Piper recognized that a global law firm has significant resources to offer to support the rule of law and legal advancement worldwide. And a country cannot have a sound, functional legal system when approximately half its population is denied access to basic legal rights. In many regions of the world, women face disparate treatment in the form of laws limiting their rights to employment, education, inheritance, property, access to financial services, health services and marriage. And even where formal laws or constitutions guarantee equality, customary laws and cultural norms often conflict and hamper implementation.

A woman who is unable to own property or access financial credit cannot start a business and thus is locked out of the opportunity to contribute to the economy of her country. A girl who is prevented from going to school or forced into an early marriage will likely be precluded from obtaining employment in the formal sector. And a woman who cannot access justice for violent crimes committed against her will find it difficult to realize her full potential.

March 8, 2012 marked International Women’s Day and this entire month is Women’s History Month. It presents an opportunity to celebrate the progress that has been made in advancing gender equality since the first International Women’s Day was commemorated, in 1909. And it also provides an occasion to recognize the enormous amount of work that remains to close the gender gap worldwide. Lawyers can and should play a pivotal role in working towards this critical goal.