Women in Law project needs your help

A team from the University of Glasgow School of Law is currently engaged in the research project Women in Law which aims to examine the history of women in the Scottish legal profession.

They have already been lent a helping hand by the Scottish Law Agents’ Society, which has loaned its archive of early material to the University of Glasgow Archives Service to facilitate the research work.

Led by Professor Maria Fletcher, Dr Charlie Peevers and Seonaid Stevenson (now of Glasgow Caledonian University), the project tracks the first women to apply to become law agents after the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919.

Andrew Stevenson, secretary of SLAS said: “We are delighted to assist the team from Glasgow University in this important project. One hundred years ago, when the first women solicitors were being admitted, the Scottish Law Agents’ Society was the only national body representing the profession. Our archives from that period contain some of the few references to the pioneering women whose careers are being examined by the Women in Law project.

“Our archives contain the names of the first women lawyers in Scotland, including the remarkable Madge Easton Anderson. The detailed forensic work being undertaken by the University of Glasgow team will uncover what there is to be found but it would appear at first blush that there was no fanfare amongst the profession when the 1919 Act was passed. On the contrary, this momentous development seems largely to have been ignored by the male establishment, and it appears that for many years thereafter the number of female law agents was insignificant.”

Professor Fletcher added: “We are hugely grateful to SLAS for their collaboration on this important project to uncover the history of women in law in Scotland. It is a privilege to be able to access the early records of SLAS to uncover what was said – or not said – about women following their admission to the legal profession a little over a century ago.

“If SLN readers have personal experiences or recollections about women in the Scottish legal profession dating back from the 1980s, the project team would be glad to hear about it. Gathering information in these more informal ways is particularly important given the paucity of officially recorded written history of women in law.”

The researchers are looking for a publication known as the Womens’ Year Book. If anyone has a copy of this book or knows the location of one, they would be delighted to hear about it. You can contact Professor Fletcher at: Maria.Fletcher@glasgow.ac.uk.