We’re hardly living in a gender-neutral utopia, but when it comes to finding women in high places you don’t have to look very far.

Nations such as Scotland, the UK, and Germany are led by one, as are institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and Federal Reserve Bank.

Why, then, is the legal profession still such a male dominated one, particularly at the most senior end?

Figures from the Law Society of Scotland, which has both a female chief executive and president in Lorna Jack and Eilidh Wiseman, reveal that while 70 per cent of students studying for a law degree are female, law firm equity partners are three times more likely to be male than female.

As owners of the business equity partners hold all the power in a law firm and the lack of female representation in that rank is reflected in the fact that just three of Scotland’s top commercial practices have female chairmen - Brodies with Christine O’Neill, Ledingham Chalmers with Jennifer Young and Morton Fraser with Linda Urquhart.

Ms Young noted that part of the reason why there are so few female lawyers in management positions is that those roles generally go to partners from firms’ transactional practices, which have traditionally been the most male dominated.

“There may have been certain areas of the profession seen as softer, more traditional and more akin to women’s skills, such as agriculture or conveyancing, although that is changing,” she said.

Another reason is that within law firms career progression is well mapped out, with the route to the top involving qualifying before spending time as a solicitor followed by a senior solicitor and then, ultimately, a partner.

“The reality is that women are more likely to take a career break and that will impact on their career progression and career development,” Ms Young said.

Then there is the self-perpetuating problem that unless a significant number of women are in leadership roles those coming behind them have no role models to look up to.

“What is helpful is the visibility of women in the partnership - having a woman chief executive or chair makes people think they can do that too,” Ms Urquhart said.

“The role model piece is important and it’s interesting sitting down with younger women because it is still the simple things they are interested in like ‘how did you do it?’.”

Role modelling certainly seems to work, if Ms O’Neill at Brodies is anything to go by.

Having had no qualms about standing for the chairmanship of Scotland’s largest law firm, Ms O’Neill said the fact she succeeded a woman in the role meant the question of her gender was never an issue for her.

“I was preceded by Joyce Cullen and I couldn’t have had a better role model,” she said.

“I think we all need heroes at work. I’ve been fortunate in my career to have heroes, some men and some women, ahead of me whom I respect for their legal experience and as people.

“It gives you the sense that the business is one in which you are welcome.”

Although Ms O’Neill, Ms Urquhart and Ms Young are examples that the profession is changing to be more representative of the society it serves, as with practically every other sector the pace of that change is slow.

“If you’d asked me when I was starting out in the profession I would have said it’s a matter of time and we’re getting there slowly,” Ms Urquhart said.

“But there is still an issue of it being matter of time and the pace is glacial.”

Recent moves by law firms to appoint non-lawyers to managerial positions should help speed things up, if for no other reason than that non-lawyers are not bound by the profession’s route to the top.

Indeed, HBJ Gateley chief executive Suzanne Grahame was finance director at UA Group prior to joining the firm while Thorntons chief operating officer Helen Archibald began her career running cinemas before moving into HR.

A Law Society review aimed at identifying alternative routes to qualification should make a difference too.

However, with the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Gender Gap Report estimating that it will take until 2095 before governments and companies are led equally by men and women, the Law Society will need to publish - and implement - its findings fast if it wants to make a difference to women just starting out in the profession.