In the Footsteps of Ethel Benjamin: New Zealand's First Woman Lawyer

In the footsteps of Ethel Benjamin tells the inspiring story of New Zealand's first woman lawyer.

The book solves some of the mysteries of Ethel's life and work: how many brothers and sisters did she have? Where did the family live? Why did she, as a first-wave feminist, act for hoteliers when many of the women's movement supported the prohibitionists?

It shows some of the obstacles Ethel encountered to becoming a lawyer in the late nineteenth-century all-male conservative legal profession. The book portrays Ethel's determination, hard work, mental ability and can-do attitude, and challenges the idea that Ethel was ultimately not successful in her chosen career.

The epilogue compares her story with that of some of her less well-known but notable successors in the mid twentieth century (Marion Thomson and Margaret McKay), and some of her famous successors (Dame Silvia Cartwright, Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas and Judith Medlicott). This is a book about how New Zealand women overcame obstacles to practice in the legal profession, once the sole preserve of men, some soaring through the glass ceiling to high positions in public life.

'Janet November has painstakingly painted an absorbing portrait of a competent woman who, early in her career, developed an assertive and tenacious business persona.' —Clarke Isaacs, Otago Daily Times

'Ethel Benjamin's story is an important part of our legal and social history, and November has rightly told it with great detail and respect.' —Charlotte Bradley, Salient

Janet November was born in Cheshire, England, educated in Liverpool and took a degree in Russian at Nottingham University in 1968. In 1980, she completed an LLB at Melbourne University. She is Senior Legal and Policy Adviser at the Law Commission.