Helen Symon:

Women who come to the Bar pretty much know they’re going to be undervalued and overlooked, and the statistics have borne that out.

Kate McMillan SC:

I think the primary concern that has to be addressed at the moment is the problem of more women getting briefs on their feet.

Rachelle Lewitan:

They obviously need to be given the briefing opportunities – they need to be given the chance in a whole variety of the sort of work they’d like to do. Now that’s every barrister’s wish, of course. The other difficulty facing women, I suppose, is still a reluctance by solicitors to brief women in trial work. It appeared to me that there was as much discrimination against women at the Bar coming from female solicitors, as from male solicitors. Now that’s a very sad factor which I think in some respects might be attributable to something of a corporate mentality.

Jennifer Batrouney:

The fundamental problem in the declining percentages of women getting briefed at the Bar is that there is this attitude of there’s a hard case, an important case, then we’d better wheel out the head-kickers. Who are men.

Jan Wade (former Victorian Attorney-General):

I think that the problem which is still there is that if you’re a man in a navy blue or grey suit, reasonable sort of tie, you were assumed to be competent. Whereas if you’re a woman, you have to prove yourself, still.

Michelle Wallace:

You have to do a bit extra to try and prove yourself, and develop a bit more of a thicker skin or a quicker wit in dealing with some of the flak that comes your way, simply because you’re a woman.

Felicity Hampel SC:

In my early years at the bar, I thought it was important to conform. To be a good girl, and a nice girl and I thought that being accepted meant conforming. It was only in later years that I realised that people would continue to act in ways that were excluding or discriminatory unless they were shown that this was inappropriate or that it was excluding and discriminatory.

(Footage of newspaper headline: “Woman and the law: top silk apologises over bias comment”)

Felicity Hampel SC:

So by being difficult, by saying “That’s not acceptable,” or “That’s excluding me,” or “That’s offensive because it’s putting me and other women down,” or “Why don’t you have any women in this case?”, (it) is important - even though it makes people uncomfortable because it’s that that’s going to bring about a change in thinking.

Jennifer Batrouney:

There’s this attitude that women can’t do the hard cases, and that they’re a bit too soft and that they tend to mediate. And I tell you, people who say that haven’t come across me, or I dare say you, in court.

Helen Symon:

If you’re going to ask yourself “What kind of a person would come to the Bar knowing that they were going to be overlooked and undervalued, and come back day after month after year determined to change that?” You would have to say “She’s a fighter.”

Written and Produced by Fiona McLeod SC
Edited and Directed by Sarah McLeod
A Twin Lizards Production
© 2003