Reading List


Below is a list of reading recommended by the First 100 Years team:


Abel, Richard L. 1988. The Making of the English Legal Profession, 1800–1988 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell; repr. Washington, DC: Beard Books, 2015).

Albisetti, James C. 2000. ‘Portia Ante Portas: Women and the Legal Profession in Europe, ca. 1870–1925’, Journal of Social History, 33: 825–57.

Anwar, S., Bayer, P. & Hjalmarsson, R. (2017) A Jury of Her Peers: The Impact of the First Female Jurors on Criminal Convictions. The Economic Journal. [Online]

Atkins, Susan and Brenda Hoggett. 2018. Women and the Law (London: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies).

Auchmuty, R. (2008) Early women law students at Cambridge and Oxford. Journal of Legal History, 29(1), 63-97. [Online]

Auchmuty, R. (2011) Whatever happened to Miss Bebb? Bebb v The Law Society and women’s legal history. Legal Studies, 31(2), 199-230. [Online]

Auchmuty, R. (ed) (2018) Great Debates in Gender and Law. Macmillan Education UK. [Online]

—— 2011b. ‘Bebb [married name Thomson] Gwyneth Marjory (1889–1921)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Auchmuty, R. & Rackley, E. (eds) (2018) Women’s Legal Landmarks. Bloomsbury Publishing. [Online]

Bacik, Ivana, Cathryn Costello and Eileen Drew. 2003. Gender InJustice: Feminising the Legal Profession (Trinity College Dublin Law School).

Baksi, Catherine. 2018. ‘Legal Hackette Lunches with Nemone Lethbridge’. [Online]

—— 2019. ‘The complete List of Women QCs’. [Online]

Barnes, Sophie. 2019. ‘Half of the judiciary should be women, says Britain’s most senior judge’, The Telegraph (24 March).

Beaumont, Caitriona. 2001. ‘The women’s movement, politics and citizenship, 1918—1950s’, in Women in Twentieth-Century Britain, ed. by Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska (London; New York: Routledge), pp.262-77.

Beloff, M. (2009) Sisters-in-Law: The irresistible rise of women in wigs. Lecture at Gresham College. [Online]

Berlins, Marcel and Clare Dyer. 2000. The Law Machine (London; Penguin, 5th edition).

Bourne, J. (2016) First Women Lawyers in Great Britain and the Empire Record, Volume I. First Women Lawyers in Great Britain and the Empire Symposia. [Online]

Bourne, J. & Mossman, M. (2016) Helena Normanton and the Opening of the Bar to Women, Waterside Press. [Online]

—— 2018. ‘Cave (married name Altof), Bertha (1881–1951)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Bourne, Judith and Frances Burton. 2019. ‘First Woman High Court Judge in England and Wales, Elizabeth Lane, 1965’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.271–274.

Bowcott, Owen. 2015. ‘Lady Hale: Supreme Court should be ashamed if diversity does not improve’, The Guardian (6 November).

—— 2018. ‘Access to justice under threat in UK, says supreme court judge’, The Guardian (26 September).

—— 2019a. ‘White and male UK judiciary ‘from another planet’, says Lady Hale’, The Guardian (1 January).

—— 2019b. ‘Christina Blacklaws: It’s deplorable there aren’t more top women in law’, The Guardian (16 April).

Broomfield, Katie. 2018. ‘Sykes [married name Browne], Mary Elaine (1896–1981)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Butler-Sloss, Elizabeth. 2004. ‘Lane [née Coulborn], Dame Elizabeth Kathleen (1905–1988)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Cave, Bertha. 1903. ‘The Legal Profession for Women’, Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art 96(2512): 762-763Collingwood, Judy. 2004. ‘Rye, Maria Susan (1829–1903)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Corcos, C. A. (1998) Portia Goes to Parliament: Women and Their Admission to Membership in the English Legal Profession. Denver University Law Review, 75, 307-417. [Online]

Cownie, F.C. (2019) ‘First Woman Professor of Law in the UK, Claire Palley, 1970’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.297–300.

Cownie, F.C. (2015) The United Kingdom’s First Woman Law Professor: An Archerian Analysis. Journal of Law and Society, 42(1), 127-149. [Online]

Crofts, Maud. 1928. Women Under English Law (London: Butterworth & Co).

Crosby, K. (2017) Keeping women off the jury in 1920s England and Wales, Legal Studies, 37(4), 695-717. [Online]

Crosby, K. (2018) How women finally got the right to jury service. British Academy. [Online]

Cruickshank, Elizabeth. 2016. ‘Follow the Money: The first women who qualified as solicitors 1922–1930’, First Women Lawyers in Great Britain and the Empire Record, 1: 44–52.

—— 2018. ‘Berthen, Edith Annie Jones (1877–1951)’ Oxford Dictionary of National biography.

—— 2019a. ‘First Woman Solicitor in England and Wales, Carrie Morrison, 1922’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.183–88.

—— 2019b. ‘Foundation of the Association of Women Solicitors, 1921’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.167–174.

Cruickshank, Elizabeth and Carrie de Silva. 2018. ‘Morrison [married name Appelbe], Carrie (18881950)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Cruickshank, E. (2003) Women in the Law. The Law Society. [Online]

Denis-Smith, Dana. 2019. ‘First Woman Court of Appeal Judge in England and Wales, Elizabeth Butler-Sloaa, 1988’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.415–420.

Derry, Caroline. 2018. ‘Cobb, Monica Mary Geikie (1891–1946)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Donnelly, Sue. 2018. ‘A Mother and Daughter at LSE: Herabai and Mithan Tata’. [Online]

Dyhouse, Carol. 1995. ‘The British Federation of University Women and the Status of Women in Universities, 1907-1939’, Women’s History Review 4(4): 465-485.

Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. 1920. The Women’s Victory and After: Personal Reminiscences, 1911–1918 (London).

Fox, Hazel. 2004. ‘Williams, Ivy (1877–1966)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Hale, Brenda. 2004. ‘Women in the Law’ (British-German Jurists Association Lecture).

—— 2013. ‘Heilbron, Dame Rose (1914–2005)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

—— 2019. ‘100 Years of Women in the Law: From Bertha Cave to Brenda Hale’ (King’s College, London, Lecture).

Heilbron, H. (2012) Rose Heilbron. Hart Publishing. [Online]

Holdsworth, Angela. 1988. Out of the Doll’s House: The Story of Women in the Twentieth Century (London: BBC Books).

Howard, Anthony. 2012. ‘Castle [née Betts], Barbara Anne, Baroness Castle of Blackburn (1910–2002), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Howsam, Leslie. 1989. ‘“Sound-Minded Women”: Eliza Orme and the Study and Practice of Law in Late-Victorian England’, Atlantis, 16: 44–55.

—— 2004. ‘Orme, Eliza (1848–1937)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Hughes, Dorothy Winifred. 1936. Careers for our Daughters (London: A & C Black Ltd).

Keazor, Emeka. 2014. ‘Notable Nigerians: Stella Thomas’. [Online]

Kennedy. Helena. 1978. ‘Women at the Bar’, in The Bar on Trial, ed. by Robert Hazell (London: Quartet Books Limited), pp.148–162.

Kennedy, H. (1993) Eve Was Framed. Vintage. [Online]

Kennedy, H. (2018) Eve Was Shamed. Chatto & Windus. [Online]

Lammasniemi, Laura. 2019. ‘First Woman to Hold Regular Judicial Office in England and Wales, Rose Heilbron, 1964’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.257–262.

Lane, Elizabeth. 1985. Hear the Other Side: Audi Alteram Partem (London: Butterworths).

Langdon-Down, Grania. 1996. ‘Law: Many happy returns …’, Independent (26 June).

Levine, Philippa. 2004. ‘Grey [née Shirreff], Maria Georgina (1816–1906)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Lindsay, Alison. 2018. ‘Anderson, Madge Easton (1896–1982)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

—— 2019. ‘First Woman Law Agent, Madge Easton Anderson, 1920’ , in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.161–166.

Logan, Anne. 2007. ‘In Search of Equal Citizenship: The Campaign for Women Magistrates in England and Wales, 1910–1939’, Women’s History Review, 16(4): 501–518. [Online]

—— 2018a. ‘Davies [married name Calvert], Theodora Llewellyn (1898–1988)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

—— 2018b. ‘Summers [née Broome], Ada Jane (1862–1944)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

—— 2019. ‘First Women Justices of the Peace, 1919’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.139–46.

Logan, A. (2006) Professionalism and the impact of England’s first women justices, 1920-1950. Historical Journal 49:833-850. [Online]

Logan, A. (2013) Building a New and Better Order? Women and jury service in England and Wales, c.1920-1970. Women’s History Review. [Online]

McCloskey, Deirdre. 2001. ‘Paid Work’, in Women in Twentieth-Century Britain, ed. by Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska (London; New York: Routledge), pp.165–179.

McLaren, S. (2019) Women’s Legal History Timeline. Inner Temple Library. [Online]

Menuge, N. J. (2003) Medieval Women and the Law. Boydell Press. [Online]

Mossman, M. (2006) The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law, and the Legal Professions. Hart Publishing. [Online]

Polden, P. (1999) The lady of tower bridge: Sybil Campbell, England’s first woman judge. Women’s History Review, 8(3), 505-526. [Online]

Moyse, Cordelia. 2004. ‘Tiedeman, May Louise Seaton (1864?–1948)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Mukherjee, Sumita. 2018. ‘Tata [married name lam], Mithan Ardeshir [Mithibai] (1898–1981)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Normanton, Helena Florence. 1914-18. Sex Differentiation in Salary (London: The National Federation of Women Teachers).

O’Hara, Mary. 2013. ‘Legal aid cuts are devastating to women, especially those suffering abuse’, The Guardian (3 December).

Oldfield. Sybil. 2004a. ‘Campbell, Sybil (1889–1977)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

—— 2004b. ‘Macmillan, (Jessie) Chrystal (1872–1937)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Pankhurst, Emmeline. 1914. Suffragette: My Own Story (The Origins of the Suffragettes) (repr. London: Hesperus Press, 2015).

Peacock. Louisa. 2014. ‘Britain’s most senior female judge, Baroness Hale: My biggest fear … when am I going to be found out?’, The Telegraph (18 April).

Pearson, Rose and Albie Sachs. 1980. ‘Barristers and Gentlemen: A critical look at sexism in the profession’ Modern Law Review, 43(4): 400–414.

Polden, P. (2005) Portia’s progress: women at the Bar in England, 1919-1939. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 12(3), 293-338. [Online]

Polden, Patrick. 1999. ‘The Lady of Tower Bridge: Sybil Campbell, England’s First Woman Judge’, Women’s History Review 8(3): 505-26.

Pugh, Martin. 2004. ‘Tate [née Hogg; other married name Gott], Mavis Constance (1893–1947)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Rackley, E. (2014) Women, Judging and the Judiciary, Routledge. [Online]

Ramo, Katherine. 2019. ‘Women Against Adversity: From PTSD after an Afghan tour of duty to City law with CMS’, The Lawyer (15 March).

Sachs, Albie and Joan Hoff Wilson. 1978. Sexism and the Law: A Study of Male Beliefs and Judicial Bias (Oxford: Martin Robertson).

De Silva, Carrie. 2019. ‘First Women: The first women in law, government , the professions. Music and other notable posts, achievements and matters of interest’. [Online]

Sommerlad, Hilary and Peter Sanderson. 1997. ‘The Legal Labour Market and the Training Needs of Women Returners in the United Kingdom’, Journal of vocational education and training, 49(1): 45–64.

—— 1998. Gender, Choice and Commitment: Women Solicitors in England and Wales and the struggle for equal status (Aldershot: Ashgate).

Sorabji, R. (2010) Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji, Reformer, Lawyer and Champion of Women’s Rights in India, I.B. Tauris. [Online]

Stone, O.M. (1972) The Status of Women in Great Britain, The American Journal of Comparative Law, 20(4), 592-621. [Online]

Takayanagi, Mari. 2016. ‘Establishing the Known: the Parliamentary Passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919’, First Women Lawyers in Great Britain and the Empire Record, 1: 19–24.

—— 2019. ‘Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919’ , in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.133–138.

Vaughan, Steven. 2019. ‘First Woman to Lead a Top 10 Law Firm on England and Wales, Lesley MacDonagh, 1995’, in Women’s Legal Landmarks: Celebrating the History of Women and Law in the UK and Ireland, ed. by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty (Oxford: Hart), pp.469–474.

Vadgama, Kusoom (ed.). 2011. An Indian Portia Selected Writings of Cornelia Sorabji 1866 to 1954 (East Grinstead: Blacker).

Workman, Joanne. 2004. ‘Normanton, Helena Florence (1882–1957)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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