Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Jeanette Ashton

1. I am a 41 year old mother of two children, age 9 and 13. I did my first degree in English and American Literature at Warwick University, graduating with a 2:1 in 1992. I trained to be a TEFL teacher shortly after graduating and worked in the UK and in Tokyo for several years—teaching, examining and teacher–training.

2. I returned to work at the language school in Brighton where I had worked for several years a year after having my first child. The school is a private organisation, with branches in Brighton and London and a couple of schools overseas. The Director of Studies was very accommodating to my childcare commitments and I worked mornings as per my request which enabled me to spend the afternoons with my daughter.

3. About a year later a colleague who also had a young child and who also worked mornings approached me with an idea that we did a job share, working three or two full days rather than five mornings. As this had not been done in the school before we put together our proposal and arranged a meeting with the Director of Studies and Principal of the school. Both were happy with our proposal and happy to “give it a go” even though it meant that our students would not have a “standard” timetable. The jobshare worked well and we continued on that basis for a couple of years until we both left to have our second child.

4. Whilst on maternity leave with my second child I decided to re-train in law, which was something I’d always wanted to do. I taught one evening a week and carried on examining when I could and studied for the Common Professional Examination and Legal Practice Course part-time over four years, achieving a Distinction in both. I was delighted to secure a Training Contract at a medium-sized regional law firm in a highly competitive market.

5. My experience at this law firm, 2009 to 2011, was very different in terms of treatment compared to the language school. The majority of Trainee Solicitors are early—mid-twenties and without children so at 38 and with two children my commitments were rather different. Whilst the junior fee earners were generally helpful as well as understanding of my childcare commitments, several of the senior partners were not at all. Core hours were 9.15 to 5.15, however trainees were expected to work way beyond this and I regularly did, making extra childcare arrangements whenever I knew we had a lot of work on. However, there were times when I did need to leave on time so that I could collect my children from After School Club which finished at 6pm. I also usually arrived at work shortly before 9.15, having taken my children to breakfast club and then driven to work, some 20 miles away. This was not the ‘done thing’ for trainees, who were expected to work far more than that. Although I wasn’t officially told that I needed to work more hours, there would be comments from partners eg on arriving at work one morning shortly before 9.15, I remarked to a female Partner in my team that the traffic had been particularly bad that morning. She replied that she wouldn’t know as she came into work far earlier than that. Another male Partner jokingly compared me to another trainee who worked 12 hour days and when I pointed out jokingly back that that trainee didn’t have children to take to organise and take to breakfast club he said that his wife did that for his children. The general feeling among the senior Partners was that a trainee should fit a certain mould and they seemed unable to get past that.

6. It had always been my intention and hope that once I’d proved myself in the firm I would be able to work part-time, as working full-time and being some distance from my children, my husband also not working locally, meant that I was reliant on grandparents, friends and After School Club, which wasn’t ideal for my family. Prior to the Newly Qualified Solicitor roles being advertised within the firm, I approached the HR manager to ask whether there would be any possibility of applying for a role on a part-time basis. Her initial response was that I should just see if I got the role and then ask. I did not think this was a very satisfactory approach both in terms of planning my childcare arrangements and I also felt it was better to be upfront with the people I would potentially be working for. Her response then was evasive, not a definite no, but very much along the lines of it would depend on the needs of the department. Once the roles were advertised I arranged a meeting with a Senior Partner in the team I wanted to apply for a position in and received the same response—on asking whether it might be possible to do the role in 4 days I was told that it would depend on the needs of the team at the time but that I should go for the interview and then, if successful, they would take it from there.

7. Although my Training Contract had gone very well and I had received very good reports from my supervisors, I knew that there was no chance that my request to work part-time would be granted. The feeling was that it wasn’t the done thing at such a junior level, regardless of the fact that having re-trained and being older I perhaps had skills and experience that my younger colleagues had not yet so fully developed. There are many fee earners who work part-time in the firm, though the attitude to part-time working varies considerably depending on the department, but these tend to be women who have worked at the firm for several years, often from trainee level, and then had children. Three trainees applied for the role which I didn’t get. Of course I cannot say whether or not my request to work part-time had any impact on the decision and I am aware that the successful candidate was excellent. However, I feel from the response I received when discussing my wish to work part-time, the odds were already stacked against me. What is particularly grating in a law firm is that there were many training sessions on eg Equal Opportunities as well as countless policies but I feel these were very much tick-box exercises and had not made any impact on the firm’s culture.

8. Given my teaching background and the fact that I’d qualified as a solicitor, I was able to find a role as a Lecturer in Law at a local university, a role which I find very rewarding and am able to fit around childcare commitments, working at home in the evenings when necessary. I am delighted to have found this role as this is something which I had hoped I would be able to do at some point in the future but also disappointed that I was unable to work in practice on a part-time basis at the firm where I’d trained.

14 November 2012