Local students take part in IWD25 #AccelerateAction workshop at Hassans.

17 students from Bayside, Gibraltar Boys Secondary School, Gibraltar College, Prior Park and Westside secondary institutions in Gibraltar joined together to take part in an International Women’s Day (IWD) workshop held by Hassans, ahead of IWD on 8^th March. 

Led by Gibraltar’s first female QC, Gillian Guzman KC, and fellow lawyers, Grace Lima, Claire Pizzarello and Tessa Rosado-Standen, 15 fellow partners, associates and trainees hosted the students to lead roundtable discussions on: 

• Barriers for Women in the legal industry and industry generally
• Gender balance - not solely a women’s issue, but an economic issue
• The legal frameworks that exist that may enable or inhibit gender equality/equity and women’s empowerment.

The objective of the session was to help those who are soon to enter higher education and/or industry to understand:

• the challenges that the legal profession and other professions face in terms of equity
• why the lack of equity is everyone’s concern, not just women’s 
• why we need to Accelerate Action
• what part we can all play in achieving a level playing field. 

Gillian commented:

“This year’s theme, #AccelerateAction, could not be more fitting. Whilst we’ve made undeniable progress, the pace of change is simply not fast enough. As a female lawyer practicing in Gibraltar for just over 30 years, I have seen first hand how far we have come — but also how much further we still need to go. 

The legal profession, much like many others, has traditionally been a male-dominated space.  When I qualified in 1994 there were 9 women actively practicing law, 2024 figures show that there were 69 female lawyers (27% of the lawyer population) in private practice in accordance with the Gibraltar Supreme Court’s list of lawyers. 

Today, there are therefore more women than ever qualifying as lawyers, judges, and legal professionals — not only in Gibraltar but across the world. That is something we should absolutely celebrate. But representation alone is not the finish line.” 

She continued: 

“The question we are asking ourselves, and our future professionals, is not whether progress is happening but how we can accelerate that progress so that equality becomes a reality for us now. In 30 years’ time, it would be a huge achievement if not one of the students here today would to stand up and advocate for equality for future generations, as we are doing for them now.”

To close the session, the students and hosts were asked to make their own pledges to #AccelerateAction based on what they had discussed.

Gillian concluded: 

“As lawyers, we know the power of legislation to drive social change — but the law alone cannot change mindsets. That is where each and every one of us comes in. Here in Gibraltar, we have the opportunity to lead by example — to show that small jurisdictions can create big change – and we hope that by engaging with the students together, and having had these important conversations, we have motivated each of us to #AccelerateAction.

Students registered were: 

Bayside School: Anna McComb, Erin Victory, Jessie Chipol Nunes, Mireille Hook, Nathalie Chipolina
Gibraltar Boys Secondary School: Abby Cohen, Yitzchak Bitan, Yitzhak Beniso
Gibraltar College: Elsa Parody, Hadil El Ouazzani Abdellah
Prior Park: Kitzia Alsina, Lauren Bennet, Olivia Holliday, Siena Lee
Westside: Bonnie McHard, Kyla Gonzalez, Tianne Payas

Thank you also to Carmen Robles from Prior Park and Shyrene Ignacio from Gibraltar College who accompanied their students, and to the Hassans’ hosts Alex Ellul, Anna Buhler, Caroline Lane, Darren Martinez, Ian Felice, Jasmine Mahtani, Kyanne Walker, Louise Federico, Louise Martinez, Meera Aswani, Miri Bayles, Nikhil Nagrani, Tamara Freyone, Tania Rahmany and Tim Garcia.