3 Things Law Firms Must Understand To Increase Gender Diversity

New research from a top consulting firm offers insights for enhancing gender diversity in the workplace.

“Super Bowl goals / My wife in the crib feeding my kids liquid gold / we in a whole different mode.” — Jay-Z

Last week, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) revealed some surprising statistics from its most recent research regarding gender diversity in the workplace.

BCG surveyed roughly 17,500 employees and interviewed more than 200 senior executives at companies in various industries across 21 countries, seeking their perspective on 39 specific diversity initiatives.

For law firms seeking to stretch their diversity spending and generate a higher ROI, BCG’s findings lead to three specific conclusions:

  1. Law firms need to know which measures are the most effective in addressing diversity and inclusion problems. BCG refers to underestimated measures that lead to significant results as “Hidden Gems.”
  2. Law firms need to understand their particular underlying issues. In many cases, senior leaders (particularly men) and the women who work for them have dramatically different perspectives on diversity and inclusion issues.
  3. Law firms need to test the ROI of programs and impose a minimum bar for new ideas. BCG’s report “is a call to action for companies to run diversity programs with the same rigor that they would apply to any other major commercial priority.” In other words, implementation is critical.

In its report, BCG delineated gender diversity initiatives into four clusters: Hidden Gems, Proven Measures, Baseline Measures, and Overrated Measures.

I found the “Overrated Measures” category quite interesting. Here, men rank the effectiveness of these measures as “high,” but women rate the effectiveness of these measures as “low.”

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“These initiatives appear promising on paper, tend to be fairly easy to launch, and often involve short-term bouts of focused effort,” according to BCG. Overrated Measures include:

  1. Holding one-time-only training sessions – too frequently outsourced and isolated events, and not enough to reshape an organizational culture.
  2. Establishing grievance systems – necessary for egregious actions, but typically insufficient to change women’s daily experience.
  3. Incentivizing senior leaders – usually gets lost among long list of leadership targets.
  4. Recruiting senior role models – not a quick fix for failure of the organic pyramid.

The “Proven Measures” category consists of known measures with proven ROI. According to BCG’s Global Gender Diversity Survey 2017, the top five strategies for improving gender diversity are:

  1. Formal Flexible Work Policies.
  2. Anti-Discrimination Policies.
  3. Role Model Visibility.
  4. Public Commitment.
  5. Informal Flexibility.

Does your law firm currently have any of these policies in place? If not, BCG has provided a compelling business case to initiate such an intervention.

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The first half of 2017 has now passed. Is your law firm making headway in its diversity and inclusion goals? Or has 2017 thus far served as a reminder of more of the same?

Business as usual can no longer be an excuse for sticking with the status quo.

If BCG’s report is truly a call to action for organizations to run diversity programs with the same rigor that they would apply to any other major priority, then law firms will need to comprehend that diversity is more than a buzzword—it is essential to running a successful business.

For a more comprehensive analysis and the “Hidden Gems” of BCG’s recommended rigorous approach to improving gender diversity, be sure to check out its latest article, “Getting the Most from Your Diversity Dollars.”


Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.