if the question had emanated from him! Very rarely was I addressed correctly. Most of my brother judges, while introducing me to outsiders, would say, ‘Meet our new lady judge’, as if my sex was not apparent. They also wanted me to take on the tea arrangements when there was a celebration!”
Most designated senior lady advocates also feel that the resistance to women entering the club of senior advocates emanates from male insecurities.
Ratna Kapur (Director of the Centre for Feminist Legal Research) says: “I think if a man and woman have the same experience and merit, when it comes to appointing senior advocates, the woman should be given equal preference. This is a kind of affirmative action to

Ratna Kapur

Zia Mody

correct age-old institutional biases against women in the legal profession.”
Zia Mody (an eminent lawyer in the field of corporate law and founder of AZB Partners) while sharing her experiences of early days of practice in India says, “Those days were hard. There were hardly any women in the court. The clients didn’t want women lawyers taking up their cases. It was stressful initially. I knew that my seniors as well as clients were not as confident of me as they were of my male counterparts.”
Sr Adv Mahalakshmi Pavani has also been raising her voice in the favour of adequate representation of women in the judiciary for a long time now. She had the privilege of putting across her points for removal of structural bias and

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