The centenary of women’s formal entry into the legal profession in the UK and Ireland is celebrated in a unique new scholarly anthology co-edited by Kent Law School Professor Erika Rackley and Professor Rosemary Auchmuty (University of Reading).
Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the history of women and law in the UK and Ireland (Hart Publishing) is an anthology of 92 key legal landmarks written by over 80 feminist legal and history scholars, all of whom are participants in the Women’s Legal Landmarks Project led by Professor Rackley and Professor Auchmuty. Between them, the book’s contributors address almost 2000 years of history of women and feminists’ engagement with law and law reform. Topics covered include the right to vote, sex discrimination, surrogacy and assisted reproduction, rape, domestic violence, FGM, equal pay, abortion, and the life stories of a number of women who were the first to undertake key legal roles and positions.
Professor Rackley said: ‘Women’s formal entry into the legal profession in 1919 was – of course – a key legal landmark for women. But it was not the first. Nor was it the last. Women’s legal history in the UK and Ireland is full of landmarks, turning points in law’s response to women’s lives and experiences.
‘Feminists have long had recourse to law as a key means of achieving equality. From “Votes for Women” to #repealthe8th, from the East End of London to Greenham Common, whether it has involved Sunday morning kidnappings, cows on Chiswick High Road, marital property, family allowances, tax reform, women bishops or image-based sexual abuse, women, feminists and women-led organisations have been there campaigning and making the arguments for change.’
A number of the landmarks are authored by Kent Law School academics including: Professor Helen Carr (with Laura Binger) on the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977; Dr Kirsty Horsey on the Warnock Report; and Professor Rosemary Hunter on the Feminist Legal Studies Journal. Professor Rackley has authored a landmark on the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 as well as one on Brenda Hale as the first woman President of the UK Supreme Court.
Dr Anne Logan from Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research writes on the first women Justices of the Peace and section 25 of the Criminal Justice Act 1972.
The book will be launched at Matrix Chambers in London at the end of January. This will be followed by a series of ‘Conversations’ hosted by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies throughout 2019.
For more information about the Women’s Legal Landmarks Project, follow @wlegallandmarks on Twitter or visit the project’s website where you can explore the landmarks by topic, jurisdiction or date. You can also listen to a podcast interview with both Professor Rackley and Professor Auchmuty discussing the project’s aims, methodology and ambitions.