Ethel Bright Ashford: more and less than a role model

Derry, Caroline (2020). Ethel Bright Ashford: more and less than a role model. Women's History Review, 29(4) pp. 615–635.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2019.1702784

Abstract

There is a tendency to position the first women lawyers as role models for today’s young women. This article argues, through an exploration of the life and career of Ethel Bright Ashford, that these women are better recognised as pioneers or foremothers than promoted as role models. Ashford was one of the first women barristers, a long-serving borough councillor, and tireless activist for civic causes. Nonetheless, aspects of her career and politics pose problems for purely celebratory accounts. Yet there is real value in considering her biography: she offers both an alternative definition of a successful professional life and the reassurance that imperfection is not equivalent to failure. Ashford therefore illustrates the vital importance of a more nuanced and historically situated consideration of the first women lawyers.

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About

  • Item ORO ID
  • 68648
  • Item Type
  • Journal Item
  • ISSN
  • 1747-583X
  • Keywords
  • Ethel Bright Ashford; lawyer; barrister; legal profession; role models; local government
  • Academic Unit or School
  • Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) > Law
    Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)
  • Copyright Holders
  • © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
  • Depositing User
  • Caroline Derry
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)

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