For International Women’s Day, it felt only fitting to look at some of the most memorable women in Law across the ages, and how they have made the industry itself accessible to all.
Whether solicitor or marketing, these outstanding women have enabled women like myself to be able to work in what was considered a male-centred field, in a firm that is run by a female Managing Director and has a 75% female workforce. In 2019 was the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, which paved the way for women to become lawyers for the first time.
It also created a dramatic shift in the mindset that women were only homemakers, but change did not come overnight and nor did these last hundred years not come without struggle.
This century has provided us with powerful women who have elicited change. I will be looking at two women’s powerful journeys into their legal careers. But as all stories go, let’s take a step back to the beginning in 1888 – the year that the first woman was able to earn a law degree in England.
Eliza Orme was 39 years old when she had her law degree, but this had not come easily to Eliza, who had petitioned to take the Solicitors exam in 1879 and was denied on the grounds of her gender. By 1888 she had been unofficially ‘practicing’ law out of an office in London’s Chancery Lane.
After gaining her qualification, Orme began one of her most important achievements as a member of the Society for the Promotion of the Employment of Women. She wrote a report on the Employment standards of Barmaids after visiting over 300 establishments and speaking with hundreds of barmaids.[1]
As you might expect, Orme collected the complaints she had commonly received from barmaids:
- ‘Attempted familiarity’ by the publican
- The presence of ‘low women’
- Bad language from carters and draymen
- Insulting customers
- Being made to continue serving dangerously drunk customers
- Long hours[2]
In the wake of the Orme report, Eliza Orme became one of the vice presidents of the Barmaids’ Political Defence League which was formed to look after the interests of the women in the profession. It wanted to keep this avenue of employment open to women but to introduce restrictions on working hours and improve the conditions of the workplace.
Eliza was never allowed to be called to the bar or join the Law Society during her life, that was a privilege reserved for her male colleagues alone. Although the work that Eliza had done throughout her working life was interesting and she was able to earn a good wage, she was never able to reach a higher level, and had to remain in her lower position due to her gender.
Orme’s life illustrates the anomaly facing women: they could complete law degrees but could not enter the profession.[3]
Skipping forward over three decades later to 1919, which saw the great year of change, with the war drawn to a close and a new government in power, there was a clear opportunity for new legislation to appease the masses that were crying out for equality.
1918 had enabled a limited portion of women the right to vote under the Representation of the People Act, but this clearly was not enough. Women had proven their capability during a period where many of the country’s men were conscripted and unable to perform in their working environments back in the motherland, in their stead women had maintained the country and had done so successfully.
Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act
This act lifted some of the restrictions on women; they were now able to serve as magistrates or jurors or enter the professions they had previously been denied from. It also stipulated that women would receive their degrees from universities on completion of study.
Rose Heilbron, who went on to be one of the first two women to be made King’s Counsel (1949, she was 34 when she made Silk), the first female recorder (1956) the first female judge of the Old Bailey (1972) and first woman treasurer at Gray’s Inn (1985), was called to the Bar in 1939. Rose Heilbron won her first murder acquittal in 1946, aged just 29.
In 1950 she became the first woman to lead an English murder case, she defended George Kelly in the infamous “Cameo cinema murder”, a case which captured the attention of the nation – The theory of the case is that a gunman (wearing a brown overcoat and a scarf wrapped around his face with a hat pulled down over his eyes) burst into the office to commit robbery and both men who were on duty were shot.
The money was left behind, and the shots had killed one and left another fatally wounded.[4] The killing of two innocent men for no more than the evening’s takings of £50, attracted enormous attention and the police were under intense public pressure to bring the murderers to justice.
The case led to the Daily Mirror naming Rose as ‘Woman of the Year’. The verdict meant that Kelly was sent to the gallows. Some 53 years after George Kelly’s first appeal, his case appeared once again in the Criminal division of the Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction as unsafe in 2003, making it one of Britain’s oldest miscarriages of justice.
In 1951 she successfully defended Anna Neary in the Bootle Bath Murder[5]; she was accused of murdering a woman in her bath. In her closing speech, Rose said there was no evidence of ill-feeling between the two women and that Anna was not short of money so robbery could not have been a motive.
The Knowsley Hall footman[6] (just 19-years old at the time of the murder), escaped the gallows on the grounds of insanity after shooting two men dead and seriously wounding the Countess of Derby at her stately home. Rose Heilbron’s bold decision to call a psychiatrist as the only defence witness was considered a masterstroke.
Dr. Francis Brisby’s opinion that he was suffering schizophrenia and gross hysteria at the time, enabled the jury to allow the insanity defence.
Jack Comer was found not guilty of stabbing a man in Soho in 1955, he said to reporters gathered outside the Old Bailey:
“If you want something to write about, write about Rose Heilbron. She’s the greatest lawyer in history.”
In September 1955, the Daily Herald wrote of her achievements during that decade:
“In 1951 Mrs. Anna Neary, a 26-year-old mother, was accused of murdering a woman in her bath. Rose, QC, defended the woman. She was acquitted. In the same year, Louis Arnold Bloom, a West Hartlepool solicitor, was charged with murdering his mistress, Mrs. Patricia Hesler. Rose, QC, defended him.
“He got three years for manslaughter. In 1952 Mrs. Mary Standish, a 35-year-old mother, stood trial for the murder of her husband after an August Bank Holiday party. Rose, QC, defended her. She walked out of court a free woman. The same year, Harold Winstanley, a 19-year-old footman, was accused of a double murder at Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool. Rose, QC, defended.
“Winstanley was found guilty but insane and sent to Broadmoor. This year Dennis Patrick Murtagh was tried for murdering a man with a car. Rose, QC, defended. She appealed against his conviction. He was acquitted.”[7]
Although she is most known throughout her decade of success in the 50’s, she continued to push change throughout her career. In September 1975, she overruled doctors who wanted to sterilise an 11-year-old girl with Sotos syndrome. That same year, she also chaired the Home Secretary Roy Jenkins’ advisory group, which led to changes in the law of rape.
Lord Roy Jenkins said of this that ‘The Government are committed to a programme of modernizing and codifying the criminal law, of which a review of the law on sexual offences will form an important part.’.[8]
Throughout her career she went from strength to strength. She contributed greatly to not only our legal system, but to the changes in thinking and acceptance of women in legal positions. She proved that women were capable in dealing with high profile criminal cases and wouldn’t shy away from a challenge.
She shook the nation with her incredible capability and the feats she achieved rather rapidly. From becoming the first female criminal lawyer in the UK to changing legislation on rape crimes. She embodied modernization and reflected the new era that had arisen since 1919.
It is remarkable the stark difference that 100 years can achieve. 1888 Eliza had been allowed to complete a law degree after years of campaigning, a century later Rose retired after a whirlwind legal career. Each paved the way for women to have their own legal careers, and each has an incredible story to tell. They truly are women who deserve to be written about.
Further Reading
First 100 Years
Spark 21
Telegraph Obituary
International Women’s Day Podcast
Listen on Spotify
Listen on YouTube
WHAT TO DO NEXT
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[1] Archive Source
[2] Boak and Bailey Source
[3] Law Gazette Source
[4] Liverpool Murders Source
[5] Liverpool Murders Source 2
[6] British Newspaper Archive
[7] API Parliament Source
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