Editors --- "Women in the Law: Some Milestones" [2003] ALRCRefJl 16; (2003) 83 Australian Law Reform Commission Reform Journal 19

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Reform Issue 83 Spring 2003

This article appeared on page 19 of the original journal.

Women in the law: some milestones

1902 Ms Ada Emily Evans becomes the first woman to graduate from law in Australia. She was unable to practise until the Women’s Legal Status Act 1918 (NSW) was enacted. Ms Evans was admitted to the Bar in 1921, but declined to practise as too much time had elapsed.

1903 Women allowed to practise law in Victoria.

1904 Women allowed to practise law in Tasmania.

1905 Ms Flos Greig becomes the first Australian woman to enter the legal profession when she is admitted as a barrister in Victoria. Queensland allows women to practise law.

1911 Women in South Australia allowed to practise law.

1918 Women allowed to practise law in New South Wales.

1923 Women allowed to practise law in Western Australia.

1925 Mary Tenison Woods (nee Kitson) and Dorothy Sommerville establish the first Australian female legal partnership, in Adelaide. Ms Sommerville also becomes the first female member of SA’s Law Society.

1962 Ms Roma Mitchell (later Dame Roma) becomes Australia’s first female Queen’s Counsel.

1965 Ms Roma Mitchell is appointed to the Supreme Court of South Australia—the first female woman in Australia to be appointed to a superior court. She later becomes the first female Acting Chief Justice.

1976 Justice Elizabeth Evatt is appointed the first Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia.

1988 Justice Elizabeth Evatt becomes the first woman President of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

1987 Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman justice of the High Court of Australia.

1990 Justice Deirdre O’Connor becomes the first female Judge of the Federal Court of Australia and President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

1991 Dame Roma Mitchell is appointed Governor of South Australia, becoming the first female vice-regal representative in Australia.

1999 Justices Margaret Beazley, Carolyn Simpson and Virginia Bell become the first all-female Bench to sit on an Australian appeals court in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal.

2000 Ms Diana Bryant QC is appointed the first Chief Federal Magistrate of the new Federal Magistrates Service.