Cultural ideas of women’s roles in society must be quashed to assure equality in the workforce, a lawyer said yesterday.

Reaia Ball, a government legal and compliance lawyer, said that many women in Bermuda struggled to get leadership roles in work because they had to choose between their jobs and their families.

But Ms Ball, who spoke last month at the United Nations in New York on gender equality, added that changing the expectation for women to be caregivers would give them the choice to make on more roles in their lives.

She said: “I think one of the things that we can do as a society is to address cultural and social norms that have to do with gender norms.

“We can work together to change the cultural and social norms that promote gender inequality.

“This includes promoting women’s economic empowerment through media campaigns, and it could be done through public education and community engagement.”

Ms Ball added: “What the challenge for many women is striking a balance between career and family, and that is usually because women are expected to take more of a hands-on roll when it comes to childcare and raising children.

“So if we can shift the expectation that is put on women to be more of the dominant parent when it comes to looking after children, then we can balance out the role that a woman plays so that she can have the option to spend more time while her partner helps out with the kids.”

Ms Ball explained: “We know that women often face barriers to accessing financial services such as credit or statements and insurance.

“These can then in turn prevent her from starting her own businesses or saving for emergencies and retirement.”

Ms Ball was speaking after she took part in a panel discussion at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN.

The event is the second-largest annual UN gathering and is dedicated to promoting gender equality and empowering women.

Ms Ball, who said it was the first time she had spoken on a panel, said she outlined the legal and policy barriers that affected women’s involvement in the workforce.

She said that these laws could be fully restrictive, such as not being allowed to apply to certain jobs or needing a man’s permission, or implicit ones, such as being overlooked for loans.

She added: “I also discussed how laws and policies could affect a woman’s health and wellbeing.

“For example, if a woman is not entitled to maternity leave or if she’s unable to take time off to care for a sick family member, then she may be forced to choose between her job and her sick family.

“When we’re thinking about personal development, we’re really looking at education and training and business development services so that women are better equipped to pursue their goals and achieve their potential.”

Ms Ball said that Bermuda had “a much higher rate” of inclusion of women in the workforce, particularly when compared to the global south.

But she added that there were not a lot of women in positions of power because of their likelihood to have families.

Ms Ball explained: “We have fairly good representation when it comes to women being included in the workforce, but then you start to see lower numbers of women holding positions of leadership and decision-making positions, particularly because women are usually splitting their time between their family and their career.

“Women are usually the ones expected to be more involved with childcare and looking after the family.”

Ms Ball said that women needed to be included in every step of organising the policies that would affect them.

She added that, on top of cultural and systemic change, “continual assessment” would be needed to make sure that women’s needs were met.