• The large number of LLB students graduating from university is not reflected in their profession. • whether the profession can achieve substantive equality and transformation through legislation and policy alone. The research involved working directly with members of the profession at various stages of their careers, from graduate and articling lawyers to seasoned professionals. The researchers used a combination of one-on-one interviews, focus groups and electronic surveys to engage participants. The report indicates that Ms. Poët encountered a large number of obstacles in her attempts to enter the profession. She has appealed several times to the courts of Turin, Italy. His case sparked public controversy and even reached Parliament, but to no avail. In 1920, at the age of 64, she was admitted to the Turin Bar.
• FHR to extend its research to all legal practitioners in public and private practice. Mrs May asked why the dialogue on gender equality and transformation was still limited to special occasions and commemorations such as August and the 16 Days of Activism. • Women`s networking opportunities and the role of the Ministry of Justice in its active role in promoting gender equality in the legal profession. She said: “One in ten girls will miss an average of four days of school a month because of their period; Women workers typically earn only 77% of what their male counterparts earn, women`s unpaid work is uncalculated and has no economic value – women spend more than twice as many minutes as men on unpaid care work; Rural girls will continue to be abducted, raped and forced into marriage; in rural KwaZulu-Natal, women continue to take their cases to traditional courts where they are not heard unless they are represented by men; And sex reassignment surgery performed by a public hospital in this country currently has a waiting list of 26 years. However, Mabuda believes that if you focus only on challenges and don`t look for ways to overcome them, the profession will remain male-dominated. The first results of the project are recorded in the Legal Profession Transformation Report. There are still many barriers that prevent Black lawyers from advancing in the legal profession. Assistant Secretary Jeffery began his speech by asking participants who the first female activist was. He was referring to Arabella Mansfield, who was called to the bar in 1869 in Iowa, USA, and who, according to some, officially holds that title. Others, according to Jeffery, believe the title should go to Italian lawyer Lidia Poët, who passed her exams and completed her two-year practical training and met all the admission requirements, but could not be admitted to the profession due to the fact that she was a woman.
• women`s access to justice and the legal profession; Mr. Jeffery cited the case of Madeline Wookey, who was tried in 1912. The Appeal Division denied her application for admission to the bar on the basis that a woman was not a “person” as required by law. In Incorporated Law Society v Wookey 1912 AD 623, a plenary session of the then Appeals Division relied on Roman-Dutch law and its exclusion from the legal practice of persons who could be described as “unfit and inappropriate,” including the deaf, blind, pagans, Jews, denouncers of the Christian Trinity, and women. The legal profession, according to Jeffrey, is still an issue when it comes to gender. Statistics from the General Council of the Bar Association show that only a quarter (645) of South Africa`s 2,571 lawyers are women. Of these, only 4.5% (116) are African women. Of the silks, or lead lawyer, only 27 are women, of whom only four are African. That is less than 1% of the 451 senior lawyers in our country. Jeffrey said this was a cause for concern, especially since many judges came from within the legal profession. She believes that to address the challenges women face in the legal profession, Black women must find ways to enter and stay in the legal profession. According to the report, Ms.
Mabuda said the high percentage of female trainee lawyers entering the profession is a beacon of hope to change the patriarchy of the profession.