Governor Margaret Beazley takes law into her own hands

NSW Governor Margaret Beazley has spent decades helping young women navigate their way through the legal profession.

NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, a pioneering female barrister and judge, has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia. Picture: Britta Campion

NSW Governor Margaret Beazley says the lingering issue of pay discrimination against female lawyers is one of the last remaining barriers that need to be overcome if the profession hopes to move closer to gender equality.

But women are more comfortable working in the field of law than they ever have been, Ms Beazley said, ahead of receiving her medal as a Companion of the Order of Australia.

The accolade recognises her service to the people of NSW, particularly through leadership roles in the judiciary and mentoring to young female lawyers.

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The former president of the Court of Appeal notes the law profession has greatly evolved since she first joined in the 1970s. Gone are the misogynists, the crotchety old judges who insisted women should not wear pants, as one former colleague once bemoaned.

When Ms Beazley was eventually appointed judge, and held her first meeting with the jurist, she wore a bright pants suit and not a word of rebuke was uttered. But she shrugs off the “feminist” title, even though she has spent many years championing women’s causes.

“I don’t call myself a feminist,” she said. “I wanted to be a lawyer and I wanted to be a barrister, and I could see no reason why I couldn’t be, and I simply got on with it,” she said. “Women should do what their ability permits them to do.”

There is no question her ascent from barrister to judge to president of the NSW Court of Appeal and beyond is a story that inspires.

She recently received a thank- you note from the Benevolent ­Society after a gathering at Government House. Among the ­attendees was a group of girls, many of whom asked the same question: they wanted to know how they too could one day become NSW governor.

Ms Beazley recounts this story amid the porcelain, silk, antiques and gilding of Drawing Room Three in Government House.

It’s a long journey away from working-class Hurstville and the schools in Penshurst, Kogarah and Milperra where she was educated.