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Employing art in the fight for gender equality in Aotearoa New Zealand's legal profession Anna Hood

By: Material type: ArticleArticleSeries: New Zealand Women's Law Journal - Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā WāhinePublication details: LexisNexis, 2022Subject(s): Online resources: In: New Zealand Women's Law Journal - Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā Wāhine, 2022, 7: 145-168Summary: Since the #MeToo movement hit Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal profession in early 2018 with revelations of sexual harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour at Russell McVeagh, there has been a raft of initiatives to address gender inequality in the law. Most have involved important changes to the rules, policies and codes that govern the profession. In the autumn of 2022, however, Judith Milner opened up a new site for questioning and challenging ideas of gender and the legal profession. She exhibited 16 portraits of female lawyers, from a diverse range of backgrounds, in an exhibition entitled “Raising the Bar”. This article explores the ways that art influences the profession and the significance of Milner’s work for efforts to address gender inequality in the law. It argues that both the substance of the portraits as well as the portraits’ composition, palette, size and shape assist in shifting deeply held assumptions about the role and position of women in the law as well as what the practice of law itself involves. (Author's abstract). Record #8219
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New Zealand Women's Law Journal - Te Aho Kawe Kaupapa Ture a ngā Wāhine, 2022, 7: 145-168

Since the #MeToo movement hit Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal profession in early 2018 with revelations of sexual harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour at Russell McVeagh, there has been a raft of initiatives to address
gender inequality in the law. Most have involved important changes to the rules, policies and codes that govern the profession. In the autumn of 2022, however, Judith Milner opened up a new site for questioning and challenging ideas of
gender and the legal profession. She exhibited 16 portraits of female lawyers, from a diverse range of backgrounds, in an exhibition entitled “Raising the Bar”. This article explores the ways that art influences the profession and the significance of
Milner’s work for efforts to address gender inequality in the law. It argues that both the substance of the portraits as well as the portraits’ composition, palette, size and shape assist in shifting deeply held assumptions about the role and
position of women in the law as well as what the practice of law itself involves. (Author's abstract). Record #8219