Mrs Katie Broomfield

2019 marked 100 years since women were admitted to the legal profession in England Wales.  Although women were permitted to sit for law degrees and made attempts before 1919 to access the profession, it was not until the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 that they were permitted to join the Law Society and the Inns of Court, which regulated access to the legal profession.  Focussing on the period 1870 to 1939, my thesis explores the opening of the legal profession to women in 1919 in the context of the women’s movement of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the concurrent trend towards professionalization, and the increased emphasis during the inter-war years on the role of women as wives and mothers, and asks how successful were the first women lawyers.  My research examines what was meant by success, to their contemporaries and to the first women lawyers themselves; interrogates how historians and consumers of public histories of the first women lawyers present, understand and use those histories; and extends consideration of the success of the first women lawyers to include both barristers and solicitors to offer a new perspective on the success of the first women lawyers.  

BA History (2004) (Royal Holloway)

PgDip Law (2005) (College of Law)

Bar Vocational Course (2006) (College of Law)

MA Public History (2017) (Royal Holloway)

Seminar Tutor, Doing History Part 1 and 2 (2018/19) (Royal Holloway)

Lincoln's Inn (Admitted 2003; Called 2006)

Citizens 800 Project (Intern) (2017–)

First 100 Years (Champion/Project Team Member) (2017–)