Women have already broken the glass ceiling of entry to the Bar in England and Wales and now make up the lion's share of new entrants to the profession. In 2006-07, 1,792 students graduated from the Bar Vocational Course, the one-year practical course that all would-be barristers must take before seeking a training place, or pupillage, in chambers. Of those, there were 941 women and 864 men.

Only about one in five of these students makes it into the profession and secures a training position. From then on, the proportion of women drops - partly because of the difficulties of combining a career with motherhood: the issue of how to retain women barristers is one of the biggest challenges for the profession.

In all, of more than 12,000 self-employed barristers in England and Wales, 3,700 are women. But in the upper ranks, the elite cadre who become Queen's Counsel, women form a much smaller percentage: of 1,223 silks, or QCs, 116 are women.

This small proportion is reflected in the judiciary, where senior women judges have lamented the small numbers of their sex in the upper judicial ranks.

There is only one woman law lord - Baroness Hale of Richmond - in the highest court of the land, the House of Lords, three women out of 36 Court of Appeal judges and 11 out of 109 High Court judges.

Times Recommends

• Ashes bid in chaos as big gamble fails
• Private schools secretly put up for sale
• Council tax debt-chasers on £600 an hour