The law profession, like many others, has titles and prefixes which are male centred. This has raised the debate over a possible change of these terms to more gender-neutral or gender-specific terms. But it appears that the debate will not end soon because of the ingrained popular cliché: “It is a man’s world”.
The legal profession has many androcentric terms such as “gentlemen; sir; my lord and chairman which are masculine but used for both the male and female genders.
On several occasions, female lawyers and judges are made to affix their status to their names such as “Miss”, “Mrs.” and “Ms.” during introductions in court or in legal documents, while the male lawyers and judges are not required to do so or can use general terms like “Mr.”.
Daily Trust has observed that when judicial panels of three males and two females preside over cases, the media downplay the contributions of the females by referring to the team as “five-man panel” rather than “five-member panel”.
A former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, in 2017, cautioned against making females to identify themselves as Miss or Mrs. in court.
According to Justice Onnoghen, the use of the legal title or suffix “Esquire” is sufficient for all lawyers or barristers, adding that it is not mandatory in the rules for female lawyers to state their marital status.
Some lawyers traced the practice of identifying female lawyers and judges with male titles as part of the tradition of the legal profession, which they explained would take a long time to correct.
Nigeria as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations; being a former colonial territory of Britain, derived its legal origins from the English Common Law. The British influence in both procedural and substantive laws in Nigeria can be seen even in the dressing, address and courtesies in court.
A member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Women Forum, Ozioma Izuora, said there was no consensus among the concerned female members of the legal profession on a change of how they were formally addressed.
Izuora noted that many female judges even felt uncomfortable to be addressed as “Your Worship” or “My Lady” instead of “My Lord”; which is masculine.
She said, “It is not just in the legal profession; it is in the armed forces and the media.”
“We are hoping that with time people can change. But as it is, some women have succumbed to the direction that the poll swings.
“In the NBA, they will tell you that until the constitution is changed, there is no provision for ‘chairperson’; that there is no ‘chairperson’ on the ballot.
“When I was Vice Chairman of NBA, I insisted on being called ‘vice chair’, but when I signed documents, I signed as ‘vice chairman’.”
A law research expert, Chinelo Ogbazo, said the challenge was that there were not enough women in the top echelon as justices of the profession; whether as Justices of the Supreme Court or Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), to push for a change in the narrative.
Ogbazo said, “It is a combination and the tradition of the bar. In fact, they say there are no women in the profession. They will tell you ‘gentlemen in skirt’.
“The idea is that the profession is for stronger people; depicting women as weak. Therefore, if a woman must be in the profession, she is a man.
“So, that is why you see people calling female justices ‘sir’ instead of ‘ma’; or ‘your lordship’ instead of ‘your ladyship’.”
Many gender advocates in other parts of the world see the terms with which female lawyers and judges are addressed with as awkward, sexist, antiquated and discriminatory.
A journalist, Sharmila Bhowmick, in an interview with the Indian Times, said, “Classifying women into Miss/Mrs. is patriarchal. A woman’s life is defined by the various stages of her being possessed by a man. Before possession she is a ‘Miss’, after possession, ‘Mrs’, and if possession falls through, she is ‘Ms’.”
In his reaction, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Prof. Tawfiq Ladan, said the lack of gender sensitivity in references in the legal profession could be traced to about 100 years tradition of the legal profession inherited from the colonial masters as a male-driven, conservative profession.
However, he said the situation was changing gradually as many female justices in Kenya, South Africa and even those at the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights were now referred to as ‘your ladyship’.
Of the about 120,000 lawyers in Nigeria, there are more males than females.
But Prof .Ladan said this had nothing to do with masculine references to female lawyers and judges, explaining that male dominance was changing rapidly.
He said, “There is no gender disparity or discrimination whatsoever when it comes to enrolment into the Nigerian law faculties or the law school or call to the bar.
“If you meet the criteria, you are admitted. And I can tell you that the older generations of the federal universities that have law faculties such as ABU Zaria, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan and UNN had 55 per cent of females as against 45 per cent in the last 10 years that I know of as Chairman of the NUC Accreditation Panel.
“Twenty five years ago, you could see more males than females, but I can tell you that in the last 10 years, I have seen in the law faculties more females than males.
“With regards to employment; whether on the bench as judges and magistrates, or in private practice, it is about additional qualifications and placements and interviews.”
He further said if there were discriminations forty years ago, the Court of Appeal would not have produced Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa as president for almost nine years, and another female replacement in Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem
He pointed to the meritorious appointment of five female justices in the current Supreme Court and the earlier rise of the first female CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, in the last 10 years.
He explained that, “The same thing applies to the payroll which is already computed based on particular qualities of salary grade structure which is neutral or blind and doesn’t really focus on gender.
“The same thing applies to the legal academia, in the last 10 years that I know, we have had more females actually joining the academia of the law faculties than the males.
“In the last 10 years, we have had more female Deans of Law as professors than in the last 30 years. Currently, the Dean of Law of UNN, Prof. Joy Ezeilo, is a lady; the Dean of Law, University of Lagos, is a lady, Prof. Ayo Atsenuwa; the former Dean of Law in Lagos, Prof. Chioma Agomoh, is a lady; and the current Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Carol, is actually from the Law Faculty; the former Dean of Law, University of Ibadan, Prof. Bamgbose, is a lady.”
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