Creating a Seat at the Table: Reflections from Women in Law

Eighteen female lawyers—some with highly successful careers behind them, some just starting out—reflect on their hopes, challenges, triumphs, and, sometimes, regrets.

Creating a Seat at the Table is an edited collection that compiles the experiences of eighteen women as they navigate their way through the male-dominated spaces of law school and the legal profession. Hear from women from different generations and areas of the law—big and small law firms, legal aid, government and politics, the judiciary, in-house positions, administrative agencies. The authors discuss a multitude of issues they’ve faced in their careers, including the compound effects of discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, or disability as well as gender. The stories presented here are inspirational at times and discomforting at others.

Creating a Seat at the Table shows that much has been done to advance women in law but also highlights that much remains to be done.

Beth Bilson has been a faculty member in the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan since 1979 and has held a number of administrative positions, including Dean of Law, Dean of Education, and University Secretary.

Leah Howie graduated from the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in 2008. She is currently director of the Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan and a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.

Brea Lowenberger is Saskatchewan’s Access to Justice coordinator, a sessional lecturer for the Dean’s Forum on Access to Justice and Dispute Resolution course at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law, and the co-founder and director of CREATE Justice, an action-oriented access to justice research centre at the University of Saskatchewan that is working on transforming legal and justice services and the removal of systemic barriers to justice.