International Women's Day

Baroness Scotland of Asthal Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scotland of Asthal]

My Lords, perhaps I may say what a privilege it is to follow my noble friend Lady Gould and the noble Baroness, the great Lady Trumpington. Much has changed in the past hundred years. The fact that so many women can participate and are participating in this debate in our House is a matter of note and of huge celebration. It is also significant, if we just look around the Chamber, that those women come from different cultures, religions and ethnicities, and all add their voices to the richness that we now have in this House. We are going to be delighted to hear seven maiden speeches today, all from women of real distinction who have each made a significant contribution to our country and our lives.

Much has changed, but much of that change has started with the creation of a legal framework which enables the rights that people have to be enforced in such a way that they can be honoured in the countries where they are promulgated. To do that, your Lordships will not be surprised to hear me say, we need lawyers. We need good female lawyers. As the House will know, I had the privilege of being the first woman to be appointed as Attorney-General in the 700-year history of that great office. With my honourable friend Vera Baird, we became the first all-female law officers team, and I have the privilege of being in the first all-female shadow law officers team, with my honourable friend Catherine McKinnell. I would like to tell your Lordships that that was because of our own innate and unique ability, but I fear that that is not the case.

It is very easy to forget that, until 1919, women were not allowed to practise law. I would like to remind your Lordships that 1922 was the first year when women started to practise, and in 1913 the Law Society refused to allow four women to be admitted. When the case went before the Court of Appeal in a very famous—I should say infamous—case of Bebb v The Law Society, the court upheld the Law Society’s decision to refuse admission. I would invite the House to remember the name of Mr Justice Joyce, because he found that women were not persons within the meaning of the Solicitors Act 1843. Therefore, it was not until 1919, when the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was passed, that women could practise law. Indeed, Maud Crofts, who was involved in that famous Court of Appeal case, having studied, attended lectures, sat exams, and graduated with first-class honours from Girton College, Cambridge, was refused a degree by the University of Cambridge because of her gender. Perhaps it is not surprising that it has taken us 700 years to have the first, somewhat limited Attorney-General who happens to be a woman.

Since that time much has changed. Sixty per cent of those now being admitted to the Law Society as solicitors are women, but 23 per cent of the partners are not. Women have made a huge contribution to the creation of law. The House will have heard me speak on so many occasions on the issue of domestic violence, to which one in four women in our country is subjected. Two or three women die every day as a result. We made changes by working together across the House. Noble Lords will know that a 63 per cent reduction in domestic violence has been possible between 2003 and 2010, and that we have reduced the economic cost by £7.5 billion. Women and women’s voices have helped to make that difference.

I know that I have only limited time, but I want to say to the House that without women raising their voices with the great men that we see in this Chamber and elsewhere, change will not be possible. The framework needs to change, because there is much for us yet to do.