Eliza Orme 1848 – 1937
Lawyer, activist in suffrage movement and Liberal party.
25 December 1848 – 22 June 1937
See: Women Law Students at University College by Leslie Howsam Women Law Students at University College – Pascal Theatre Company (pascal-theatre.com)
Education
Attended Bedford College for Women, Bloomsbury.
1868 Took the first General Examination for women which 9 students sat at the University of London. Awarded Honours. (In June 1868 the University of London’s Senate voted to allow women to sit a special examination which would enable them, on passing, to study at the university.)
1871 Entered University College (UCL) studying law and political economy but could not receive a degree as women were unable to graduate until 1878.
1876 First prize in Roman law and the Hume scholarship in jurisprudence.
1888 Became the first woman to gain a law degree in England and Wales, from University of London.
Some Key Interests and Achievements
1875 Set up office in Chancery Lane with UCL student Mary Richardson, both earning a good living as conveyancers and patent agents (but less than men with similar educational backgrounds but who were legally qualified). Women were unable to enter the Inns of Court or become solicitors within the Law Society but were free to serve in these unregulated capacities; similarly, they ‘devilled’ as unofficial legal practitioners to assist barristers with complex documents. This remained the case until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 permitted women to qualify as barristers or solicitors in England.
1887 Became founding member of the Women’s Liberal Federation (WLF).
1888 to 1892 Editor of the WLF periodical, Women’s Gazette & Weekly News.
Member of Liberal party; strong supporter of Home Rule for Ireland.
Member of the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage and of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW).
Actively involved in promoting suffrage but separated herself from the Women’s Liberal Federation 1892 when a majority of its members voted to make suffrage a specific goal of the organisation which went against official Liberal Party policy.
1892 Became Senior Lady Assistant Commissioner to the Royal Commission on Labour overseeing a small team of Lady Assistant Commissioners – her reports focused on the working condition of barmaids, women in the metal industries and women’s work in Ireland.
1894 Joined a government Departmental Committee on Prison Conditions.
Issues
Legally trained but unable to practise officially as disadvantaged as a woman.
1903 The Law Journal asked ‘Would not the introduction of women into the field of advocacy hinder the administration of justice by checking the fighting instincts of the chivalrous barrister? Is not the struggle in the Courts too keen and personal to admit of the rivalry of women?’ to which she responded: No Undesirable results have followed the admission of women to the legal profession in America. I have met a number of American advocates of both sexes, and I have been told that any sense of strangeness has soon disappeared. I cannot believe that any man would be less vigorous in the cause of his client merely because he was opposed by a woman. The forensic attitude would be too strong, and no woman who succeeded in becoming a member of the Bar would expect or wish it to be otherwise.’
Connection to Bloomsbury
Studied at Bedford College and UCL.
Female networks
Fellow members of WLF, SPEW, and colleagues, American suffragists and lawyers, Reina Emily Lawrence.
Harriet Taylor,
Mary Richardson (who Jane Chessar persuaded to stand for the London School Board in 1879. Richardson represented Southwark until 1875. She was also Honorary Treasurer of the Association to Promote Women’s Knowledge of the Law.)
Writing/Publications include:
1893 The Employment of Women: reports by Clara Collett, Eliza Orme, Margaret Irwin and May Abraham on the conditions of work in various industries in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.
1898 Lady Fry of Darlington: biography of WLF founder.
Further reading:
Legal Paperwork and Public Policy: Eliza Orme’s Professional Expertise in Late-Victorian Britain https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/historypub/259/
https://celebratingtheentenaryofwomenlawyers.wordpress.com/maud-crofts/
Howsam, Leslie; Eliza Orme’s Ambitions: Politics and the Law in Victorian London;
https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.03