Laureate Professor Hilary Charlesworth AM

One of the best parts of my job at the UNE Law School is interviewing legal figures who I have admired all my life. Recently I was able to do this when talking to Professor Hilary Charlesworth from Melbourne University. For those of you who are not involved in the legal world, Hilary is a super impressive academic who specialises in human rights law. She has an enviable CV – by anyone’s measure- and has a long list of academic titles and roles. As I was soon to find out though these accolades are only one part of who Hilary is as a person.

One of the aspects of Hilary’s life I was interested in exploring was how she coupled academia with motherhood. She told me how she never felt like the perfect parent. ‘I had to accept things were often not adequately done- nothing ever got enough attention. It is best to relax into the chaos and accept things cannot be done perfectly.’ What sage advice!

Apparently the ‘rock star of the law world’- Mr Michael Kirby -will also be in the audience of the lecture Hilary is about to present at the UNE Law School. I originally thought Mr Kirby’s interest in this lecture was purely professional.  I was surprised to hear that Mr Kirby was friends with Hilary’s father, who was a philosopher. Apparently the two professionals worked together on bioethical issues- what a small world it is!!

When Hilary started her legal career, she did not have a good understanding of the equity issues which faced woman. She grew up as one of seven children, five of whom were girls. She went to an all-girls school and did not witness the discrimination she would see later in her life. When she started working as a judge’s associate as well as in law firms, Hilary started observing first-hand the overt and subtle ways women face challenges and burdens that their male counterparts don’t. She soon identified that most of the prestigious positions in law were held by men and that there was inherent sexism within the profession.  Interestingly, Hilary then spent time in the United States to further her studies. During this time, she became aware of the field of feminist legal studies. When she later started working as an academic she was heartened to see academics such as Jenny Morgan and Reg Greycar were starting to examine these issues and inequities.

She notes ‘In many ways there are still gender disparities between men and women in law. As an example of this- there are currently only 3 /15 women sitting as judges in the International Court of Justice.  This is the highest number ever and is unlikely to increase soon.’ Hilary also noted ‘you can see clear differences in the CVs of women. Often there are gaps compared to many of their male counterparts because of caring and other responsibilities. This makes it harder for women to obtain more prestigious roles as they are assumed not to have the required breadth of experience.’

One type of human rights violations that Hilary has worked on is domestic violence. She reflected on how some commentators have argued that domestic violence can’t qualify as a human rights issue as this will open the floodgates!?! The reasons for this attitude are perplexing but likely grounded in traditional perceptions of what human rights violations are. ‘Traditionally people have focused on human rights issues such as arbitrary detention and torture. Generally, the way these abuses are defined means that they apply more readily to men, while abuses against women are often considered part of the private, unregulated, realm.’

In light of the Covid 19 pandemic Hilary also notes that women have fared worse than men. For example, the federal budget which was recently handed down advantages traditionally male-dominated industries such as construction. This is coupled with the fact women have lost more jobs during the pandemic. Woman have also had career interruptions during this time because of mandatory home schooling and other increases in care responsibilities.

It is encouraging to see high profile academics such as Professor Hilary Charlesworth shining a light on these important issues. Please join me in listening to her presentation at 1pm on the 18^th November.