University of Melbourne Events Calendar

“The trouble with the women of my generation is that we thought if we knocked the doors down, success would be inevitable: the trouble with the men of your generation is that so many still think that, if they hold the doors open, we will be forever grateful”- the late Mary Gaudron, first woman Justice of the High Court of Australia, speaking at the launch of Australian Women Lawyers.

More than 120 years after Flos Greig became the first woman admitted to legal practice in Australia, women have entered every level of the profession. Yet formal inclusion has not always made progress inevitable. What happens when gains show signs of retreat?

In this lecture, Fiona McLeod AO SC asks what equality before and within the law really looks like, and whether formal access to institutions is enough. From the experiences of Australia’s earliest women lawyers to continuing inequality in the profession, reproductive rights, and the failures of justice systems to protect the vulnerable.

She draws on an extensive career in advocacy, law reform, and pro-bono human rights matters to call for lawyers and the society they serve, to remain informed, active, and not to look away from the uncomfortable stories that move us.

About the lecture series

The Flos Greig Lecture is named after Grata Flos Matilda Greig, the first woman to be admitted to legal practice in Australia. Greig’s determination advanced gender equality in the legal profession in Australia in the early twentieth century, paving the way for other women to follow suit. Upon graduating from the Melbourne Law School in 1903, Greig undertook her articles with Frank Cornwall, later continuing her career with Cornwalls law firm.

We are delighted to have Cornwalls’ involvement in this lecture series, recognising Greig’s pioneering spirit which transformed the basis of admission to the Australian legal profession.

How do the gut and brain speak? Nerves continually communicate between gut and brain. They are the ‘crossroads’ of human bodies. But how does this feel?

This arts-science hands-on workshop – led by medical artist Emily Fong and medical humanities researchers Dr Paige Donaghy and Dr Jacinthe Flore – will engage a public audience in imagining how the gut and the brain chatter through nerves, sensations, and emotions.

Through serious play with a range of materials and modalities, the audience will explore embodied moods, experiences, and the mystery of bodies beyond medicalisation, as a community.

18+ participants only.

What to expect:

A three-hour hands-on arts-science workshop using creative play, materials and collaborative body mapping.

This workshop is part of a series, held over two separate dates and please note that the second session is a repeat - follow the below link for information on the other session.

Nerves speak, too: crosstalk in the gut-brain axis - 12 November