- In re Haynes (1904) 6 WAR 209. The ‘person's cases’ were a notorious series of cases emanating from the UK and North America, as well as Australia, when first wave feminism was engaged in the struggle for women to be admitted to public office and the professions. The relevant regulatory statute commonly used the sex-neutral word ‘person’ which judges proceeded to interpret as sex-specific, rather than sex-neutral, so that only men, not women, were deemed eligible for admission. For further analysis, see Thornton Margaret Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession Oxford University Press Melbourne 1996 at 56–63. See also Sachs Albie and Hoff Wilson Joan Sexism and the Law: A Study of Male Beliefs and Judicial Bias in Britain and the United States Martin Robertson Oxford 1978.
- Davies Lloyd Sheila: A Biography of Sheila Mary McClemans OBE, CMG, SJM, BA, LLB Desert Pea Press Leichhardt 2000 at 51.
- The first was that of Mary Kitson and Dorothy Somerville in Adelaide in 1925. See Thornton above note 1 at 184.
- Davies above note 2 at 136.
- Davies above note 2 at 70–71 and 137.
- Mirror 16 February 1935 reprinted in Davies above note 2 at 66. For comparable representations of Melbourne lawyer, Joan Rosanove, over a number of years, see Thornton above note 1 at 217–18.
- Davies above note 2 at 184.
- Davies above note 2 at 127.
- Davies above note 2 at 129.
- Davies above note 2 at 186. A number of senior women whom I interviewed for Dissonance and Distrust, above note 1, echoed similar sentiments. Having said that, however, they would then reveal a series of injustices to which they had been subjected years before but had suppressed. Neutralising the self was the only way to be accepted within a masculinist environment.
- Davies above note 2 at 184.
- Davies above note 2 at 185.
- State Committees on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation were established in 1973 following the Whitlam Government's ratification of ILO 111 (Convention concerning Discrimination in respect of Employment and Occupation, 1958). The Committees preceded the enactment of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth), the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Act 198b (Cth). The writer chaired the NSW Committee 1982–86.
- Davies above note 2 at 179.
- O'Mara v Harris (1948) 77 CLR 490. See also Thornton Margaret ‘Women practitioners’ in Blackshield Tony, Coper Michael and Williams George (eds) The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia Oxford University Press Melbourne 2001.
- Davies above note 2 at 124.
- Davies above note 2 at 182.
- Davies above note 2 at 183.
Australian Feminist Law Journal
Volume 16, 2002 - Issue 1