The first women Lawyers

Ethel Benjamin was the first woman to be admitted as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand, in 1897 at Dunedin. The number of women who entered the legal profession over the next few decades was small: by 1960 there had been fewer than 50 women admitted. The following list of our first women lawyers has been largely sourced from Gill Gatfield's landmark study Without Prejudice: Women in the Law, published by Brookers Ltd in 1996. A link on the lawyer's name leads to further information. Where a lawyer changed her last name, this is shown in brackets.

With thanks to Thomson Reuters New Zealand Ltd.

The first women Judges

The first woman appointed to the judiciary in New Zealand, Dame Augusta Wallace, became a District Court Judge in September 1975. Over the next 20 years, 19 more women became judges, with Dame Silvia Cartwright, who was the second woman appointed to the District Court, becoming the first woman appointed to the full High Court bench. Anne Gambrill CNZM had earlier been appointed a Master (now Associate Judge) of the High Court. Again, much of the list has been sourced from Gill Gatfield's Without Prejudice: Women in the Law (Brookers Ltd, Wellington, 1996).

Appointments of women to the judiciary in New Zealand  before 2000 were:

With thanks to Thomson Reuters New Zealand Ltd.