Law

7

Is working as a lawyer and being a Hijabi hard ?
Also how do u balance kids and a job in the legal sector ?

Reply 1

7

I don't think being a Hijabi will effect anything its about you not what you wear... um if you google on Salma Maqsood i think you will feel motivated.

Reply 2

Crazy Jamie

19

Original post

by Anonymouse12346

Is working as a lawyer and being a Hijabi hard ?
Also how do u balance kids and a job in the legal sector ?

I don't know if you're asking the Hijabi question from a discrimination or practical standpoint. I can't help from a practical standpoint. From a discrimination standpoint, there was a thread on that relatively recently, and I think the conclusion was that whilst there is always going to be the risk of discrimination to some degree, whether deliberate or not, things in that respect have moved on considerably in the legal industry and it's not something that should cause you to hesitate about a legal career.

The kids and jobs balancing is a different question, and one that depends on a range of factors. It's also one that you would be able to gather a lot of different views on. In many ways it is like any other busy and demanding job. Generally speaking lawyers will put in a lot of hours early on in their careers, and will seek more of a balance as they get older, though there is some reported tendency among younger lawyers nowadays to seek that balance earlier. But female lawyers, as is the trend with women who are higher earners generally, often then choose to have children later, when they are more able to get that balance. There is also extensive use of things like flexible working, part time working, and remote working to assist women in particular, but both parents to some degree, with managing their caring responsibilities alongside their work responsibilities.

Any parent working in the law will tell you that it's difficult to balance work with home life. It's something that you always try to get better at, but you can never get it exactly right (much like parenting itself in that respect). The extent to which you are able to do that depends on a range of factors, including what you partner does for a living and their flexibility. But I don't think there's any reason to think that having a family and having a fulfilling family life is inconsistent with working as a lawyer. You just have to acknowledge that you don't have unlimited hours in the day, and if you do a demanding job there is always going to be an extent to which that will take time away from other things, including family.

Reply 3

Stiffy Byng

19

Original post

by MARIA_3

I don't think being a Hijabi will effect anything its about you not what you wear... um if you google on Salma Maqsood i think you will feel motivated.

See also Shaheed Fatima KC, arguably the foremost barrister of her generation.

https://www.blackstonechambers.com/barristers/shaheed-fatima-kc/

Balancing family life with a legal career is hard, especially for women who have children, but it easier at the Bar than it is for solicitors.

Reply 4

thegeek888

18

Original post

by Stiffy Byng

See also Shaheed Fatima KC, arguably the foremost barrister of her generation.
https://www.blackstonechambers.com/barristers/shaheed-fatima-kc/
Balancing family life with a legal career is hard, especially for women who have children, but it easier at the Bar than it is for solicitors.

Wow...now I want to become a Barrister with BA (Oxon) and BCL (Oxon). Because that's my 'kind' of Lady!!! 😀 lol I will make dua prayer in sujood (prostration) at Night Prayer in the last third of the night when angel Gabriel i.e. Jibril and God Allah descend on Earth to answer sincere dua prayer to meet her one day. Fatima has a fantastic list of clients?! Just WOW.😉

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 5

Stiffy Byng

19

Original post

by thegeek888

Wow...now I want to become a Barrister with BA (Oxon) and BCL (Oxon). Because that's my 'kind' of Lady!!! 😀 lol I will make dua prayer in sujood (prostration) at Night Prayer in the last third of the night when angel Gabriel i.e. Jibril and God Allah descend on Earth to answer sincere dua prayer to meet her one day. Fatima has a fantastic list of clients?! Just WOW.😉

Ms Fatima KC studied law at Glasgow, obtained a BCL at Oxford, and then an LLM at Harvard before starting at Blackstone, where I was fortunate to have her as one of my pupils. She did not obtain her professional eminence by praying but by working very hard, and having a broad outlook on the law and on life in general. Shaheed has an unusually wide and varied practice, in the manner of Pushpinder Saini KC (who is now Mr Justice Saini) and Michael Beloff KC (who is now retired). This is relatively rare in a World of increasing specialisation, but is a good thing, as I think that the best barristers have always been generalists.

Reply 6

17Student17

16

On the babies issue and writing as a mother who always has worked full time in my view it comes down to having equality at home eg we both found full, time child care for the baby, we both paid half the costs, we both did as much as each other domestically. Do not tolerate sexism even for a day at home and it will be fine. There is nothing in Islam that stops men holding babies for 3 hours screaming in the night or changing nappies or rushing home from their own work to get to a nursery before it closes even if that damages the man's career. Good luck.

Reply 7

Crazy Jamie

19

Original post

by 17Student17

On the babies issue and writing as a mother who always has worked full time in my view it comes down to having equality at home eg we both found full, time child care for the baby, we both paid half the costs, we both did as much as each other domestically. Do not tolerate sexism even for a day at home and it will be fine. There is nothing in Islam that stops men holding babies for 3 hours screaming in the night or changing nappies or rushing home from their own work to get to a nursery before it closes even if that damages the man's career. Good luck.

Excellent advice, and I will also add that even if an imbalance is created in that regard, as there often is during the transition for the woman back into work from maternity leave, for example, that doesn't mean that that can't be remedied. I will absolutely hold my hands up and say that after my wife had our first child, I should have done more. Our children were breast fed and wouldn't take a bottle, so there was a lot that I couldn't physically help with, but that shouldn't have stopped me from taking on more of the caring responsibilities and mental load than I did. That wasn't due to any overt sexism on my part; I was simply ignorant to the realities of the pressures on my wife. But in more recent years I have acknowledged that and have made significant efforts to rectify that balance. It's very easy for even well meaning mothers and fathers to slip into that routine where the mother shoulders a disproportionate amount of the burden of childcare, even when both are working full time. Even if that does happen, you can absolutely correct it, as I have done and as quite a few other couples that I know have done. And your religion should definitely never be an excuse for such an imbalance.

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