1660 ý &\C--, ct. -If MAKING WOMEN MAGISTRATES: FEMINISM, CITIZENSHIP AND JUSTICE IN ENGLAND AND WALES 1918 -1950 ANNE FRANCES HELENJLOGAN A thesissubmitted in partial fulfilment of the requirementsof the Universityof Greenwichfor the Degreeof Doctor of Philosophy It ýQ Jyý rý LOC J. '6w W. - March2002 ABSTRACT This thesis addressesthe subject of women magistratesin England and Wales from their introduction in 1919 and the work subsequentlyperformed by the early women JPs until the late 1940s. Surprisingly, despitethe great volume of work on women's history during the last few decades,historians have not researchedthis subject in detail. While only a handful of women have becomeprofessional judges in this country, many thousandshave sat in judgement on their fellow citizens as lay justices. This duty is both voluntary and unpaid but it is, along with jury service, a vitally important aspectof citizenship. It is arguedherein that this exerciseof citizenship through the magistracy was an ongoing concern of feminists and of women's organisationsin the period. Not only did the magistracychange women by making them equal citizens, but also women changedthe magistracy,by pioneering modern ideas in the work of the JP and presaginga new, quasi-professionalapproach. Part One examines the process by which women were brought into the lay magistracy. Chapter One locates the origins of the campaign for the appointment of women as JPs in the women's suffrage movement and demonstrates that the necessary legislation was largely uncontroversial. Chapter Two analyses the ongoing campaign by women's organisations and their allies to bring more women to the magisterial bench. Chapter Three explores the relationship between the emergence of a separate system of criminal justice for juveniles and the creation of women magistrates. Part Two seeksto establishto what extent the `woman magistrate' was a new category. Chapter Four analysesthe social backgroundsof the first women appointed as JPs. Chapter Five is concernedwith women's experienceof the magistracy,which is examined mostly through their own words. Chapter Six focuseson networks and organisationsof women JPs and the campaignsthey took part in, and arguesthat they adopteda distinctly feminist approachto their role. It is concludedthat - up to a point - the earlywomen JPs were a new type of magistrate,providing a templatefor futuredevelopments in the lay magistracyafter 1950. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 3 Abbreviations 4 List of Figures 5 Introduction 7 Chapter One - The Campaign for Women Magistrates 1910-1919 35 Chapter Two - Wanted: More Women Magistrates 70 ChapterThree - `A Suitable Personfor Suitable Cases' 101 Chapter Four - The First Women Magistrates 143 Chapter Five -'A Signal Success'? 180 Chapter Six - Beyond the Courts 228 Conclusion 272 Appendices 278 Bibliography 303 2 AKNOWLEI)GEMLNTS My thanks arc due to librarians and archivists at several locations, especially at the Women'sLibrary in London(formerly the FawcettLibrary), the Modern RecordsCentre at Warwick University and the GloucestershireCounty Record Office. I also wish to thank the Magistrates' Association, who not only supplied me with accessto their library and coffee and biscuits but also with a warm and quiet room in which to work. This thesis would not have been startedwithout the encouragementof my mother, who died before its completion. She also transcribedsome documentsfor me. My daughters,Clare and Ruth, helped compile the magistrates' databaseand Brian has shown great forbearance. Many thanks are, of course, due to my supervisorsat the University of Greenwich, ProfessorAngela V. John and ProfessorMick Ryan, and to Dr. Paula Bartley, Dr. Brian Harrison and Dr. Katherine Bradley who all answeredmy inquiries. I receivedwelcome support from fellow PhD studentsat Greenwichwhen we met at the School of Humanities History Seminars. Finally, I wish to thank my studentson the BSc Social Scienceprogramme at the University of Kent at Medway (formerly Mid-Kent College) for inspiring me to believe that I too could return to study. r ' 3 ýý AIHIIREVIATIONS IIRCS British Red Cross Society BWTA British Women's TemperanceAssociation GWMS GloucestershireWomen Magistrates' Society HWMA Hampshire Women Magistrates' Society JP Justice of the Peace MA Magistrates' Association NCW National Council of Women NFWI National Federationof Women's Institutes NFWW National Federationof Women Workers NSPCC National Society for the Preventionof Cruelty to Children NUSEC NationalUnion of Societiesfor EqualCitizenship NUWSS National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies NUWW NationalUnion of WomenWorkers NWCA National WomenCitizens Association PAC PublicAssistance Committee PLG Poor Law Guardian PSMC Public Service and Magistrates' Committee (of NCW) SEC Societyfor EqualCitizenship SJC StandingJoint Committee WCA Women's Citizens Association WCG Women's Co-operative Guild WFL Women's FreedomLeague WI Women's Institute 4 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: photographof Mrs. C.D. RackhamJP, 1937 p. 6 Figure 2: table of women magistratesappointed p. 98 Figure 3: table of County magistratesin Kent, 1934 -5p. 99 Figure 4: table of County magistratesin Kent, 1950 p. 100 Figure 5: photographof Mrs. Geraldine Cadbury, 1919 p. 107 5 Figure 1: Photograph of Mrs. C. I). Rackham JP, 1937 INTRODUCTION In 1918 British women were able to cast a vote in a General Election for the first time. In the following yearwomen began to sit on the magisterialbench to pass judgement on their fellow citizens, another situation which was probably without ' precedentin Britain. Whereasonly a handful of women have becomeprofessional judges in England and Wales, many thousandshave sat as lay justices in courts that handle over ninety per cent of criminal cases.Whilst the right to vote is just one aspectof the role of a citizen in a modern liberal democratic society, it is has received far more attention from both contemporariesand historians than other essential aspectsof citizenship, in particular the right and duty to take part in the administration of justice. Yet, as Ruth Lister has pointed out `much of the political history of the twentiethcentury has been characterised by battlesto extend,defend or give substanceto political, civil and social rights of citizenship', battles in which women played`a centralrole'. The struggleby womento achieveequal citizenship on the magistrates'benches of Englandand Waleswas one such battle and is a centraltheme of this thesis. This Introduction will place the battle in the context of the campaign for women'ssuffrage and will commentupon the applicationof feministprinciples to citizenship.The definition of `feminism' will be considered.This thesiswill be placedin the contextof publishedwork on the women'smovement in the periodafter the First World War and on the role of women in Britain's justice system. The principal sourcesresearched will be consideredand the structure of the thesis outlined. ' For details of probable precedentsfor women being mademagistrates, see Chapter One. 2 Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives,Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1997, p. 4. 7 Much hasbeen written on the prolongedcampaign by British womenfor the parliamentaryvote betweenthe first organisedsuffrage petition in 1866 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914,3and there have been thorough examinations of otheraspects of the women'smovement in this period,especially the campaigns for an equal moral standardbetween men and women. As SusanKingsley Kent has argued,these two issueswere not unconnected,but sprang from the samelate nineteenthcentury feminist analysis, which rejected the notion that the public and private were distinct spheres. For women like Millicent Garrctt Fawcett, who was not only Presidentof the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies(NUWSS) but also a prominent supporterof the National Vigilance Association (NVA), the vote was not an end in itself but a meansto an end, namely `the achievementof a nobler and truer relationship betweenthe sexes'5. Yet she was as aware as other feminists of the time that the vote would not by itself transform the position of women; a complex range of legal reforms were neededto ensurethat women had equal employment rights,equal access to divorceand the guardianshipof their children,and equal treatmentin the courtsof law. This in turn would not happenwithout the attainment of full citizenship:what was requiredwas not merelythe chanceto help decidewhich men governedthe country, but also the opportunity for women themselvesto become the makersand adjudicators of the country'slaws. A commitmentto the acquisition andexercise of full citizens' rights wasthus fundamentallyimportant to suffragists. Some recent feminist commentatorsargue that the faith the women's movement of the 191Osand 1920splaced in statutory reform was misplaced, since 3 For example,Andrew Rosen,Rise Up JVomen!London, Routledge& Kggan Paul, 1974; Jill Liddington & Jill Norris, One Hand Tied Behind Us, London, Virago, 1978; SandraStanley Holton, Feminism and Democracy, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1986;Martin Pugh, The March of the Women, Oxford University Press,2000. For example,Sheila Jeffreys, TheSpinster and 11erEnemies, London, PandoraPress, 1985. 3 SusanKingsley Kent, Sex and Suffrage in Britain 1860-1914,London, Routledge, 1990,p. 14. 8 `feministshave had the opportunityto observethe limited usefulnessof law reform'. 6 Katherine O'Donovan has argued that liberal feminists tried to open up the public sphereto eliminate women's