IBA Raising the Bar: Women in Law
The ‘Raising the Bar: Women in Law’ project is the International Bar Association’s ambitious global research project on gender parity in the legal profession, focusing on women’s representation. Phase 1 of the project will focus on the number of senior women across private, public, judicial and in-house legal sectors in 16 jurisdictions. Phase 2 of the project will focus on women’s experiences working in the profession to understand what is and isn’t working for women in the law.
The aim of this project is to identify the statistical disparity between men and women at all levels, with a focus on senior positions, in the legal profession on a global scale, and identify whether workplace initiatives introduced to address this disparity are having any impact.
Current research shows that females make up the majority of law students and graduates globally, but this is not reflected in the statistics of those working at senior levels, across all legal sectors, where women still constitute a far smaller proportion than their male counterparts. The project seeks to understand and address this gap via a multi-year study, and provide practical conclusions and guidance to the global legal profession.
While previous studies have focused primarily on commercial law firms, where data and willingness to participate have been prevalent, the IBA study will be the first to provide global data from law firms, the public sector, in-house lawyers, the judiciary, and where relevant, barristers and advocates.
In March 2022, the first of the project’s reports was released on England and Wales. Reports on Uganda and Spain followed later that year. The report on Nigeria was released on International Women's Day 2023, followed by the Netherlands and Chile later that year. A case study on Nepal was released at the start of 2024, the report on the Republic of Korea was published in April, and the Brazil report followed in August 2024. The Mexico report was released at the annual conference in September, followed by Ukraine and Türkiye at the end of 2024. In December 2024 a Progress Report was published, setting out the key findings from the project to date following the publication of reports across 11 jurisdictions. The Taiwan report was released in early 2025. As of 2026, reports on Australia and Canada have been released; with Singapore and India to follow.
The project is being led by IBA’s Legal Policy & Research Unit, Diversity & Inclusion Council, with support and input from the Women Lawyers' Committee.
If you would like to be involved in producing a case study on gender balance in the legal profession in your jurisdiction please contact:
sara.carnegie@int-bar.org
Raising the Bar: Women in Law (Phase 2)
Phase 2 of the Raising the Bar: Women in Law project focused on women’s experiences working in the profession, to better understand what is and isn’t working for women in the law. The Phase 2 Report, released in March 2026, made a number of recommendations which IBA committees are looking to action.
Media and Awards
Justitia Awards 2026
The IBA’s Raising the Bar: Women in Law initiative received the award for Special Achievement at the 2026 Justitia Awards, part of the Women in Law Conference, where it was recognized for its contribution to the advancement of gender representation across the global legal profession.
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Women and Diversity in Law Awards
The IBA Legal Policy & Research Unit and International Bar Association were the winners of two awards at the Women and Diversity in Law Awards, hosted on 13 March 2024.
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Country Reports
Progress Report
On 3 December 2024, IBA President Almudena Arpón de Mendívil Aldama was joined by senior and emerging female leaders in the legal profession at the launch of the IBA Raising the Bar: Women in Law (Progress Report) to discuss their findings.
Panel one focused on the lessons learned and the wisdom of recognised senior women leaders in the legal profession. Panel two considered the perspective of emergent female leaders. Watch the recordings below.
Opening remarks and report presentation
Panel 1
Panel 2
Despite good intentions, despite the merits and talent of so many women, we still don’t reach the most senior positions across the legal sector mainly due to discriminatory obstacles placed in our paths. This directly clashes with the principles defended by our profession. The legal sector cannot afford this contradiction and should lead by example. With the benefit of raised general awareness around discrimination, it is time for increased action. The IBA is committed to developing solutions that will bring about lasting change to reflect the broader profession and society as a whole.
Almudena Arpón de Mendívil
President, International Bar Association (2023-2024)
Featured videos and podcasts
Complementary initiatives
Nepal: new case study on gender disparity and the impact of professional development training for women
A new case study on gender equality in the Nepalese legal profession, produced by DLA Piper’s nonprofit affiliate New Perimeter, has been released in collaboration with the IBA’s Gender Project. The report, International training of women lawyers in Nepal: A case study, focuses on the professional development training given to Nepalese female lawyers in 2015 and 2016, analyses its successes and lessons learnt, and includes interviews with both trainers and trainees. The training, delivered by New Perimeter alongside the Nepal Bar Association and other organisations, serves as an excellent example of how to shift the dial in gender equality in the legal profession through international collaboration. This case study complements the country reports released by the IBA on gender equality