Opening caption:

"For nearly a century, women at the Victorian Bar lacked a collective voice".

Brief succession of photos of Flos Greig, first female Victorian law graduate (1905), Joan Rosanove – first woman to sign Victorian Bar Roll (1923) and Victoria’s first female QC (1965), Margery King – third woman to sign Victorian Bar Roll (1932), Molly Kingston – seventh woman to sign Victorian Bar Roll (1962), and Lynnette Opas – ninth woman to sign Victorian Bar Roll (1967) and Victoria’s second female QC (1984).

Male barrister audio (recreated exchange):

"And with whom is my learned friend appearing?!"

Joan Rosanove audio (recreated exchange):

"I am appearing with myself. I am the leader of the female Bar". (Conversation recounted from “Woman in a Wig” by Isabel Carter, Lansdowne Press, 1970, p.36)

NARRATION (Juliette Brodsky):

In the early 1990s, improved gender awareness was a topic of much discussion among the Australian legal sector and in the media. The Family Court of Australia’s former Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson presented a candid assessment of the problem when he addressed an historic gathering of judges, senior lawyers and academics in Kooralbyn, Queensland during 1994.

The Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC (Family Court conference, April 1994) - Footage courtesy of the Family Court of Australia

But it seems to me that what we ought to be doing is to identify those forms of bias in ourselves, and doing our best to eliminate them. And that’s one of the reasons we’re all here. We may not always succeed in achieving that aim, but in my view, the recognition of the existence of a problem is obviously the first step to doing something about it. And the next step, logically, is the analysis of the nature of the problem, and then this is followed by the taking of such steps as we can to eliminate it.

WBA Statement of Purpose (read by Judge Rachelle Lewitan)

The Women Barristers Association was established in 1993. Its purposes are:

1. To promote awareness, discussion and resolution of issues which particularly affect women;
2. To identify, highlight and eradicate discrimination against women in law and in the legal system.
3. To advance equality for women at the Bar and in the legal profession generally, and to
4. Provide a professional and social network for women barristers.

Juliette Brodsky, journalist

At the outset, beginning with you, Judge Lewitan, I would like you to briefly tell us a little bit about the establishment of the WBA, how it came into being.

Judge Rachelle Lewitan AO, inaugural WBA convenor 1993-1995

We felt that at the time it was important for the women at the Bar to have a voice and we first met in the Marriage Room which was off campus at the time to determine whether we wanted to establish some sort of association. At the time, unfortunately, there was some criticism of our attempts to establish this association because it was perceived to be divisive. And so we met with quite a lot of resistance.

Juliette Brodsky

You said that you met with resistance - was it a great deal of resistance, were there many people at the Bar at the time? Was it more than half for example?

Judge Rachelle Lewitan

There were people who opposed the (WBA’s) establishment. But we also had people who encouraged us and thought that we were doing a worthwhile thing. I suppose that the criticism that we encountered, I don’t know if we can put a number on it, but it certainly made itself felt.

Juliette Brodsky

Judge Cohen, you were quoted not long ago saying that when leaflets were put up in the lifts announcing the Women Barristers Association and its formation, that they were graffitied, these forms that were put in the lifts, and torn down.

Judge Susan Cohen, WBA convenor 1998-99

Yes, there were some. The particular use of the Marriage Room, as Judge Lewitan has said, off campus, created I suppose an opening for those who wanted to belittle the idea. So that some of the graffiti was to the effect of ‘”bring a plate”. Lots were pulled down. But that active opposition really probably only lasted the first few months of meeting. Some of the senior members of the Bar, not only men, were discouraging a lot of the younger women from being seen to join and support the organisation.

Juliette Brodsky

Were they successful in discouraging the younger women?

Judge Susan Cohen

Not ultimately, but I think it probably has to have had some effect at the start, and for all I know still does.

Juliette Brodsky

Felicity Hampel, you would be recalling at that time that there was no equivalent organisation of the Women Barristers Association anywhere in Australia?

Judge Felicity Hampel, WBA convenor 1997-98

That’s right, yes.

Juliette Brodsky

So was that a factor that also interested you, the opportunity to make a mark when you were all moving for your first meetings?

Judge Felicity Hampel

It did. I was doing a lot of advocacy teaching around Australia at the time, so I was visiting the bars of other states and conscious of the fact that often I was the only woman who was up there teaching and that there were very few women who were coming to the workshops. But every time a woman came to a workshop she would come up and talk to me about what it was like to be at the bar, about the difficulties of isolation and so I was conscious that this was not just a Victorian issue and that if we started doing something in Victoria, there was likely to be a good ripple effect that would work in the other states.

Juliette Brodsky

Which aspect of the statement of purpose interested you most and motivated you most when you first joined the WBA?

Helen Symon SC, WBA convenor 1996-97

I think the first year I wasn’t sure, and the second year I was off having a baby and I came to the dinner that year and Fran O’Brien spoke, and in typical Fran passion, she spoke so powerfully and with such passionate energy, I thought: I’m going to do that. So up until then I hadn’t been sure but it was really Fran’s passion and energy that convinced me that this was something worth being involved in.

Judge Liz Gaynor, WBA assistant convenor 1999-2001 and 2002

It was a wonderful opportunity to meet more women at the Bar because women are in the minority anyway and we all get split up because we are all doing very different things so I knew all the crime women but beyond that I really didn’t know a lot of other women and so I was very anxious to do that and I was also keen to get in contact with younger women at the Bar and that was my main emphasis because having gone through at a time when I think you still had to struggle, it’s a nice feeling to think, "look, maybe I can do something that makes the Bar seem a bit of a friendlier place, a bit of a more welcoming place", and I think the way women relate to each other is fairly unique and my line was always about the WBA with some, when you’re talking to a bloke and you’ve just made a complete idiot of yourself in court and you come out and say: Oh God why did I do that? All you want to do is tell someone. Women always want to unload and say, "Guess what I did – oh I can’t believe I did it!" And you say it to a bloke and they go, "Oh did you do that? That’s not too good is it? "

Juliette Brodsky

Fiona?

Fiona McLeod SC, WBA convenor 2002-03

One of the very great successes of the WBA right through the generations has been targeting its allies and it started way back with Rachelle and Brian Shaw and Ron Merkel and people like that, right through to Neil Young and today with Michael Shand and Robin Brett and people like that. We’ve been very good at finding men in power who will support us and they stand in the space of – I support the WBA and what they do and their voice carries a weight that our voices, sometimes shrill and sometimes piping, sometimes nagging, we can’t carry that and yet when you have these allies who are men, they bring a lot of men with them.

Juliette Brodsky

Judge Lewitan?

Judge Rachelle Lewitan

Just in the first year when we were trying to establish our credibility, we arranged talks and there were talks given every couple of months and we would invite people, heads of jurisdictions like Chief Justice Black of the Federal Court, we had (the Hon.) Mary Gaudron giving a speech, we had Alastair Nicholson, Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson (Family Court of Australia), and eminent people like that and we would invite everybody, the whole of the Bar to these sessions and so that people would come along, including the leaders of the Bar like Ron Merkel, Ron Castan at that time, and Peter Justice Gray and they would turn up and they would be very visible so that was part of the process of telling people, "well we are an association, we are credible and criticise us at your peril".

Edited transcript of interviews conducted by Juliette Brodsky on March 30 and April 10 2007 in the Neil McPhee Room, Owen Dixon Chambers East, and filmed by Sarah McLeod, Stewart Carter, Branden Barber and Bonnie Elliott.