Half of women working in legal services said their working pattern was unsustainable due to health concerns, while 67% have considered changing jobs or taking a career break over wellbeing issues, according to a new report on women in law.
The research, Pressure Points: Mapping Women’s Wellbeing in Law, found that 85% of respondents had experienced health and wellbeing problems that affected their work over the past five years.
Some 70% of the sample reported persistent exhaustion or low energy that was not fully relieved by rest, indicating retention risks for law firms if these issues remained unaddressed.
Despite such concerns, 43% said they did not feel able to discuss them openly at work without risking negative consequences. Fewer than half (42%) believed their employer took the wellbeing of female employees seriously, while one-third said it was not a significant focus.
One respondent said: "The main thing is that you feel you just have to get on with it and not complain or draw attention to anything that might make the partners see you as trouble or difficult. When you are at a certain age you feel vulnerable and the constant pressure to demonstrate your value to the business."
The Next 100 Years project, backed by legal charity LawCare, RPC, and consultants Goodbody Wellness, surveyed more than 500 women in the legal profession.
Dana Denis-Smith, Next 100 Years’ founder and deputy vice-president of the Law Society, said the findings “demonstrate the scale of the health and wellbeing issues women face and reflect the quiet, accumulated cost of years working in conditions that damage health, with insufficient support from employers”.
She added: “Many firms are taking health and wellbeing seriously, but good intentions and wellness programmes are not enough. We need to see change in the underlying architecture - the hours, the billing model, the cultural expectations and the absence of targeted support.”
Stress was the most reported issue, cited by 83% of respondents, followed by anxiety at 71% and burnout at 53%. Many women reported experiencing multiple problems.
Women’s health issues were also prominent. Almost one-third, 29%, said they had been affected by menopause symptoms, while one-quarter cited menstruation-related symptoms. Respondents also reported baby loss, fertility issues and pregnancy-related issues.
Balancing work with caring responsibilities was identified as the greatest challenge, selected by 42% of participants. Poor management ranked second at 16%. Long hours and a lack of understanding of women’s health issues were each cited by 11%.
Elizabeth Rimmer, outgoing chief executive of LawCare, said: “This report is a worrying reminder of the impact workplace pressures can have on women's mental health in the legal sector.”
Rimmer, who will be succeeded as CEO in October by Law Society president Mark Evans (who wrote the report's foreword), added: “Stress, burnout, and exhaustion shouldn't be accepted as part of the job, and it's concerning to see how many women are considering stepping away from the profession.”
Rimmer, a judge at the 2026 Women and Diversity in Law Awards, concluded: “There is an urgent need for workplaces to take action to address the structural and cultural factors that impact women and to retain them in the sector.”
The report found that many employers offered wellbeing measures that were treated as benefits rather than embedded in workplace culture. Flexible working was available at 80% of employers. Employee assistance programmes were reported by 60%, access to mental health first aiders by 61%, and confidential counselling by 58%.
Support was less consistent in areas specifically affecting women’s health. Some 41% of respondents reported support for working parents and 39% for maternity returners. Just under half said their organisation had a menopause policy, while only 36% were aware of policies covering fertility support and miscarriages.
The report called on employers to treat wellbeing as a structural issue. It recommended audits of working patterns, billing models and cultural expectations, alongside a review of billable-hours models.
Other recommendations included implementing and enforcing menopause, fertility and pregnancy-loss policies; making flexible working the default; providing structured support for maternity returners; extending paid carers’ leave; and offering financial wellbeing support.
The report also urged employers to enable women to raise health concerns safely, emphasising the need for “creating genuine psychological safety for disclosure” through manager training and anonymous reporting channels.
Rachel Pears, an associate director at RPC, said: “The research demonstrates a pattern: exhaustion that becomes normalised; health and wellbeing concerns that are managed quietly and alone; and working practices that feel increasingly hard to sustain.”
Performance and health coach Ann-Marie Goodbody called the findings “a performance crisis hiding in plain sight”.
She added: “Until recovery becomes a structural norm in legal working life, rather than a personal indulgence squeezed into the margins, this cycle will not change, and the profession will keep losing the very women it cannot afford to lose.”
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
