Where Are the Women?

With a hat tip to Bridget Crawford. Professor Auchmuty has traced one trailblazer.

Rosemary Auchmuty, University of Reading, has published Recovering Lost Lives: Researching Women in Legal History at 42 Journal of Law and Society 34 (2015). Here is the abstract.

Drawing on the research I undertook into the life of Gwyneth Bebb, who in 1913 challenged the Law Society of England and Wales for their refusal to admit women to the solicitors’ profession, this article focuses on the range of sources one might use to explore the lives of women in law, about whom there might be a few public records but little else, and on the ways in which sources, even official ones, might be imaginatively used. It traces the research process from the case that inspired the research (Bebb v. the Law Society [1914] 1 Ch 286) through to the creation of an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and what this means for women's history, emphasizing the importance of asking the ‘woman question’ and seeking out the broader significance of a woman's life in the context of her times.

The full text is not available from SSRN.