Litigants and Litigators: Women HRDs 19 2.4.1 Challenges for women human rights lawyers Patriarchy: The most commonly noted obstacle to women HRDs generally is patriarchy. Patriarchy subdues women as they are regarded as being unequal to men and thus are supposed to obtain guidance and/or direction from their male counterparts and relatives. In the legal profession, such patriarchy results in a misguided perception that male lawyers are more competent, more aggressive, braver, and that they are the go-getters. These qualities are often perceived to be essential in successful human rights work. In human rights cases some clients openly prefer that male lawyers represent them in criminal or even civil cases, although women lawyers may have comparable or greater experience and more success in similar cases. This attitude is not confined to laypeople. A cursory analysis of the country’s top law firms will reveal the disparity between the numbers of female partners compared to male partners and this is indicative of the extent to which the profession is still very male dominated. The disparity in numbers becomes even more glaring within the field of human rights law, as fewer female lawyers are attracted to this very dangerous and risky sphere of law. While others may have a desire and passion for such work, they are forced to forego it in favour of working hard to build a corporate and relatively “safe” practice which could build their chances of professional advancement and partnership. Family/work balance: Women lawyers in general have to contend with balancing work and family and the gendered roles bestowed upon them. This is more difficult when they are single parents. In an ideal world, the fundamental responsibility to family and community should not be gendered but, in reality, women still bear a disproportionate share of the childrearing and household responsibilities even whilst they struggle to maintain professional careers. A woman human rights lawyer often has to assist clients at odd hours; appear at police stations any time of the day and night; spend long hours drafting pleadings and visiting clients in police detention and prison; and be prepared to sacrifice her weekends and public holidays and forego other important family events or functions. As a human rights lawyer, she is perpetually “on call”, and may need to attend to work at unconventional and mostly inconvenient times for her partner, husband and sometimes family members. Perceptions: Despite their commitment to the cause, women human rights lawyers are at times not taken as seriously as their male counterparts. When they attend to business at police stations wearing their court attire they risk receiving chauvinistic comments and sexual innuendos from police officers, instead of being treated professionally and with the respect due to officers of the court. Typically, women lawyers are derided when they claim their space and assert themselves as professionals. Indistinguishable from their clients: In addition to all the challenges stated above, women human rights lawyers, just like their male counterparts, have at times been closely associated with the cause of their clients. They have been harassed through physical assaults, threats of unspecified deadly action, verbal abuse, arrested for championing their client’s cause ands at times, even prosecuted. The instances of these attacks are highlighted in chronological order below: 24 March 2003: Gugulethu Moyo, the legal counsel for the privately owned newspaper, The Daily News, attended at Glenview police station to represent the then Daily News photographer, Philimon Bulawayo, who had been arrested in Glenview on 18 March 2003