A hundred years of women in law
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is only 100 years since women in the UK were first allowed to practice law. Women now make up more than 50% of lawyers in many parts of the world, but why are so few in the top jobs? Katie Prescott speaks to Dana Dennis-Smith, who has collated the stories of women in the law over the last century. Farmida Bi of Norton Rose Fulbright, a huge international law firm, speaks about her journey from non-English speaking Pakistani child to global leader in her profession. We also hear from Shana Knizhnik, co-author of Notorious R.B.G: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, about one of the most iconic women in the US legal profession.
(Photo: A statue of justice. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, Tim Harford here, just popping up to say, I've made a second season of 50 things that made the modern economy. |
| 0:06.3 | 50 more episodes, 50 more fascinating inventions and ideas that made the world what it is today. |
| 0:12.8 | Back to the main event. |
| 0:15.7 | One of the really striking things when I was a youngish lawyer was this real recognition amongst women |
| 0:23.3 | that you didn't have pictures of your children up on the walls, you didn't really talk about them. |
| 0:27.8 | And it was always a real contrast with the men who always had lots of pictures of their children up |
| 0:32.4 | and talked about them quite a lot because it helped to humanise them and made them look like providers. |
| 0:39.7 | Women and the Law. Today, on Business Daily, with me Katie Prescott, I'm going to be exploring |
| 0:45.2 | the history of the struggle for representation in the legal profession. What was it like for |
| 0:50.5 | those first female lawyers? All the professional body organisations, the Law Society, the ins of court, where you had to go |
| 0:58.6 | to become a lawyer, you have to become a member, will reject women because they were not |
| 1:02.8 | deemed to be persons under the existing statutory legislation. |
| 1:06.5 | And how some women are shaking things up and inspiring new generations. |
| 1:11.6 | We as young women are starving for icons |
| 1:15.2 | who have not just achieved the sort of stature that she has |
| 1:19.3 | and the success in her own career. |
| 1:22.0 | She has done so while fighting for everyone. |
| 1:25.8 | That's all in Business Daily on the BBC. |
| 1:28.3 | England in 1888. |
| 1:32.3 | It's a time of change for many. |
| 1:35.3 | Elizabeth Orme was the first woman to get a law degree, |
| 1:38.3 | but she wasn't allowed to become a lawyer. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.