b'Women join the partnershipLaw firms were slow to welcome women. It was not untilreported in the Sydney Morning Herald: Woman dents after the Second World War that women were given thelawyers image read the headline. In 2005 Emma Warren opportunity to pursue a legal career. By the 1960s womenbecame the first woman in the Melbourne office to be represented 10 per cent of Australian law graduates, andappointed a partner while on parental leave.by 1987 men and women were attending law school in equal numbers. However, these numbers did not translateToday the firm has strong female representation at all to equal participation in the profession. Progress in womenlevels and continues to address the challenges long faced achieving greater representation at senior ranks has beenby women in the profession. In 2016 Fiona Crosbie was especially slow. appointed the firms first female chair. Today 37 per centof Allens partners are women. Ruth Edenborough (at the time Ruth Barnet), who applied for a job at Allen Allen & Hemsley in 1963, was one of the firms first female solicitors; there were only two other female solicitors in the office when she joined. Few firms were opening the door to women at that time, and it was very difficult to get articles, she says. Twenty-two years later in 1985 Allen Allen & Hemsley appointed its first female partner, Judy Mutton. In 1988 Louise Jenkins was the first woman to be appointed a partner at Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks. Nobody ever thought a girl would want to become a partner because it just wasnt the sort of thing girls did apparently, Jenkins says. She, along with Mutton and Marian Gibney, the first female partner at Feez Ruthning, helped to change those assumptions.Jillian Segal was appointed a partner at Allen Allen & Hemsley in 1986 and, while advising on some of the largest takeover deals of that time, wrote the firms first maternity leave policy. In 1987 Lynne Harman was the first solicitor to remain employed by the firm whilst having a child. Harman was working part-time after the birth of her second child in 1990 when news of her appointment as a partner wasSydney Morning Herald, 8 May 1990. 183'