Legally Clueless

In this episode of Difference She Makes, we explore how professional excellence becomes a quiet but powerful form of resistance inside deeply gendered institutions. Our guest, Ruth Tanui, is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the Founder and Managing Partner of Tanui & Company Advocates.Through her journey, from navigating hostile work environments to building her own law firm, Ruth shows us how competence, credibility, and consistency can reshape institutional culture from the inside. This conversation goes beyond representation. It asks harder questions about pay inequity, toxic leadership, confidence gaps, and the invisible rules women are expected to follow at work and what it takes to unlearn them.In this episode, we explore:• Why excellence, not just access, determines who is trusted and promoted• How toxic law firm cultures push women to shrink, self-doubt, or exit• The unspoken ways gender bias shows up in hiring, pay, and client trust• What it looks like to build a fair, human-centered la