Page 20 - Keeping the Peace

1920s and 1930s:
the rise of women JPs, a rustling of women’s dresses on the magisterial bench
The 1920s saw new challenges to the power of JPs, not least from the women’s movement. A 1913 ‘Justice of the Peace’ article revealed a degree of anxiety amongst some JPs about the new democratic role for women:
‘Are the suffragrettes mad? ... Is there any rational explanation of the phenomena – something that will assure us that the next generation is not insane? While it is not easy to point to any present injustices in our laws and institutions which are of such character as to goad our sisters to an outbreak of frenzied rebellion – it cannot be denied that there are certain legal inequalities, but these only now and then affect isolated individuals’.22
There was a move to increase the diversity of people who could be eligible to take on the role in a hope to broaden the appeal of the role. On 7 April 1920 the ‘Justice of the Peace’ newsletter noted that the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Bill (UK) passed both houses of parliament. Still, ‘It must not be supposed that there will suddenly be a rustling of women’s dresses on magisterial benches, however desirable it may be in principle. JPs need to have been regarded as having some form of social distinction.’ If there was a role for women, the newsletter noted, it might best be in providing insight into the woman’s true position on crimes related to women (eg assault, concealment of birth, offences against affiliation orders).23
However, the movement to allow women to become JPs grew. Victoria was the last Australian state to appoint women as JPs. New South Wales, who passed the legislation in 1918, had 219 women JPs by 1926.24 An unlikely alliance formed between socially conservative groups
Ms Lilias Skene was recognised for her decades of progressive reform in the National Council of Women in Victoria by her selection as one of the first women JPs in Victoria. www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/ncwa/presidents-26.html
22 23 24
‘The Justice of the Peace’, 7 October 1913, p, 131. ‘The Justice of the Peace’, 7 April 1920, p. 11-12. The Herald, 5 May 1926.