A Revolution in Numbers: Ontario Feminist Lawyers in the Formative Years 1970s-1990s

Abstract

This article examines the careers of Ontario women lawyers who went to law school from the 1970s to the 1990s and self-defined as feminist. The three decades saw a “revolution of numbers” – a dramatic increase in the critical mass of female and feminist lawyers. The author interviewed forty-five women who are self-identified feminists and graduated from law school after 1970 about their experience during those three decades. The article contextualizes the unprecedented “wave” of feminist lawyers, and discusses how women's experience in the legal profession changed. Ontario feminist lawyers generally came from non-wealthy families, and most were first-generation university graduates without lawyers in the family. Their motivations in pursuing a legal career were diverse, as were their paths to embracing feminist politics. Some factors that influenced their choice to study law were reproductive autonomy, postwar economic optimism, the demographic force of the baby boomer generation, parental and sibling influence, inspirational role models, a desire for independence, defiance over sexist treatment, and a variety of social reform objectives. The author shares reflections of what it was like to be a feminist lawyer during the second wave of feminism. Activism required collaborative working relationships, and lawyers were energized by being part of a vibrant feminist community. The respondents' closing comments mirror the passion with which feminist lawyers approached their work.