Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice

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The book tackles topical issues such as sexual assault, prostitution, domestic violence and abuse with sensitivity and offers compelling arguments about how the law could be reformed, especially to safeguard the children of female convicts and the women who have faced a lack of understanding from a male dominated system. As Mary Robinson, the former President of ireland and an eminent human rights lawyer, has said: "If we are to go forward we need to look at attitudes and the language which expresses attitude. This is far from the most upsetting of the things experienced by women at the hands of the legal system documented and explained by the formidable QC Helena Kennedy in this book. Twenty-five years have passed since Kennedy published Eve Was Framed, the groundbreaking precursor to her latest work.

While Bledisloe would, no doubt, have claimed that this was an innocent metaphor, it's problematic that the idea of 'property' is the first analogy a man can reach for in a conversation about rape, given the history of women once being the legal property of their fathers or their husbands. The warrior who fought Alzheimer’s in her final years and showed us all grace and courage in the face of that battle.We've talked to death about hormones as they relate to periods and menopause and other health issues. Overall, a very interesting book and a much needed female perspective on how the justice system impacts women. Too much estrogen can lead to high blood pressure, increased blood sugar, and increase risk of blood clots. Her earlier 2005 novel The Position, which was also well-reviewed, is about the children of parents, who (before they had children) published a book together about their sex lives.

In the midst of this, the court does not take into account other aspects such as depriving children of a mother and the condition of the woman in jail. Embracing a broader definition which includes how diseases impact women differently, how the healthcare system treats women differently, and the pink tax we pay. Sexuality was briefly referenced, but there was no reference to the complexities of gender in terms of trans and non-binary people's experiences, or to the experiences of disabled women who are also disproportionately likely to experience violence. A petite fireball, Kennedy grew up in the Glasgow tenements, both her parents having left school at 14.If we are to strike a balance, if we are to readjust participation and enrich our society with dialogue, we have to revise this way of thinking. Her final questioning of whether we want equality with men or to be treated fairly, and her discussion of the vast difference between these two approaches was fascinating.

I would say some of the points did tend to tar everyone with the same brush, but the author did (very often) make side notes of impartiality. The further you are from being white, male, middle class, highly educated and professional, the more terrifying this environment is going to be. This focus on “law in context” rather than “black-letter law” (what the law actually says) helps you approach law in a more rounded and considerate way.Helena Kennedy QC (Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, QC) uses an approachable vocabulary that makes sense to those without legal knowledge. Next week, I have a post planned reflecting on a recent study I’ve been leading on Tuesday evenings in the congregation I serve on a book by Jeffrey Kripal, the chair of the religion department at Rice University, on Comparing Religions. It is not a book which will tell you what the law is, in which situations to apply the law, how the law is passed etc. Unlike Germaine Greer, who recently wrote a provocative and alienating book about it, based in part on a set of assumptions I found particularly hard to recognise, Kennedy brings us cold, hard facts about how women are treated by the criminal justice system, including rape victims still expected to answer questions in the vein of: “whether her vagina was naturally lubricated to enable penetration, thereby encouraging the jury to infer that some gratification was being found”. Before reading the book, I thought trials were fairly simple processes and that, most of the time, the judiciary are easily able to ascertain if someone is innocent or guilty.

The Tasting Menu is a group of three to four topics each week to learn more about your body and health to get you to know your body better such as learning how to strengthen your pelvic floor, symptoms you might not realize are from menopause, women and heart health. This book is a polemic and therefore asserts Kennedy’s opinion on the injustice of the criminal law by critiquing the intimidating nature of court with the paraphernalia of wigs and gowns, assessing the impact of this mystical element of the law, and talking about her experiences as a very successful female barrister.

Using her own experience and expertise, Kennedy reflects on how women often fail to find justice or fair treatment when it comes to the criminal law in the UK.