Gwyneth Bebb

Who was Gwyneth Bebb?

Gwyneth Bebb was the plaintiff in Bebb v. The Law Society, a test case in the opening of the legal profession to women in Britain. In 1911 she graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford, with a first in jurisprudence. At that time women were not awarded degrees at Oxford, although they could take the examinations. In 1913 advocates of women in the legal profession selected Bebb for a test case for the cause; the case was known as Bebb v. The Law Society. When Bebb applied to sit the preliminary solicitors' examinations she was refused on grounds of her sex by the Law Society, which was the basis for her case. The case was heard on 2 and 3 July 1913, before Mr Justice Joyce in the Chancery Division, seeking a declaration that she was a “person” within the meaning of that Act and the amending Acts, and was therefore entitled to be admitted to the preliminary examination of the Law Society. However, the case was dismissed, as the judges determined that women were incapable of being lawyers due to their sex until and unless the relevant laws were changed. It was later dismissed again on appeal. Yet the publicity from her case – the press was mostly in her favor – helped the campaign for women's admission to the legal profession in Britain, and in 1919 the passage of the Sex Disqualification Act allowed women to be lawyers. However, Bebb herself had her first baby the day after the Act was passed, and died two months after the birth of a second baby in 1921.