On 19 September 2016, Freshfields hosted an ICC YAF event at its London offices on gender diversity in arbitration and the Pledge for Equal Representation in Arbitration (“Pledge”), a topic which has been the centre of discussions on panels organised by ArbitralWomen around the world. The Pledge initiative, orchestrated by Sylvia Noury of Freshfields and launched in May this year, addresses issues related to under-representation of female arbitrators on arbitral tribunals and has already had a positive effect, as practitioners – both men and women – have joined the debate all across the board. The purpose of this panel was to have an interactive debate about the reasons for the barriers to gender diversity and how to overcome them.