Equality for women working in law has made huge strides since I entered the profession more than 20 years ago.

As a teenager doing work experience, I remember being instructed that I needed to wear a skirt. Thankfully today, we’ve by and large left these outdated attitudes where they belong – buried in the past.

Women born in the 1950s and ‘60s had to fight hard for positions of leadership in all industries, and most likely had to do it alone. They have paved the way for me and future generations to take up the torch. I’m proud to work in a very different workplace these days, where firms are supportive and tolerant, and striving for equality and diversity are the norm.

Today, we have women at the helm of many top legal organisations - Emily Formby is chair of the Personal Injuries Bar Association (PIBA), Lori Andrus is president of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and Ana Romero Porro is president of Pan European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL) to name but a few. Women occupying these leading legal roles is empowering and inspiring to others.

I know I’m immensely honoured to be a female president of APIL. I’m only the fourth in the organisation’s 35-year history but I hope my time leading the association will serve to inspire a long line of women presidents in the future. My message to any woman out there thinking about entering the legal profession is to dream big because you too could one day head up a brilliant organisation like APIL, where you can affect real change that makes a real difference to people’s lives.

Women should never be afraid to strive for managerial and leadership roles in any industry.

As International Women’s Day approaches on 8 March, there is much to celebrate but equally there is so much we still must do to achieve equality and equity for all woman across the globe. We must not be complacent and think all is well in our own backyard.

There is still an epidemic of abuse and violence against women and girls in this country. These are some of the victims of negligence that APIL lawyers fight for daily.

APIL’s research on the ‘gender justice gap’ in relation to work-related injury and illness claims found that women are three times less likely than men to claim compensation for a work-related injury or illness and, despite women representing more than half of work-related injury and illness victims, they make up just 27 per cent of employers’ liability claimants. The reasons for this are unclear. One possible explanation is that research examining the link between workplace environments and illness has traditionally focused on male-dominated industries. Without research linking their illness to their working environment, women will find it more difficult to hold those responsible for their condition to account.

Elsewhere in the world, there are countries where women are treated as second-class citizens and have no rights, and that has to change.

This International Women’s Day the theme is ‘accelerate action’. We have much still to do at home and in the wider world to achieve gender equality. If you are in a position of leadership, men or women, you are privileged and can help effect change for the better. As personal injury lawyers that includes seeking justice for our female clients who need us to be their voice in their darkest hour.