Mary Gaudron

Mary Genevieve Gaudron (born 5 January 1943), is an Australian lawyer and judge, who was the first female Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Gaudron was born in Moree, in northern rural New South Wales in 1943, the daughter of working-class parents Edward and Grace Gaudron.

She would later speak about the intense racism towards Indigenous Australians which was part of everyday life in Moree and how it influenced her strong opposition to all forms of discrimination.

In 1951, H. V. Evatt passed through Moree to campaign for the "no" case in the 1951 referendum, at which the Menzies Liberal government was attempting to alter the Constitution of Australia in order to ban the Australian Communist Party.

Evatt was addressing a small crowd from the back of a blue Holden ute, discussing the upcoming referendum and the Constitution, and Gaudron, not knowing what Evatt was referring to, asked "Please sir, what's a Constitution?"

Evatt explained that it was "the laws by which Parliaments were governed."

Gaudron asked whether it was similar to the Ten Commandments and Evatt replied that "you could call it the Ten Commandments of government."

Gaudron then asked for a copy and Evatt subsequently sent her one in the mail.

Gaudron, expecting two stone tablets, was disappointed to receive only a small pamphlet.

However, when the school bullies declared the pamphlet useless, Gaudron retorted that it was of great use to lawyers, and that some day she would be one.

Gaudron was educated at St Ursula's College in Armidale.

Gaudron's argument was based on the principles of the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention of the International Labour Organization (an organisation she would later work for).

However, Gaudron later came to regard her argument, that Australia had not ratified the Convention because the commission would not grant equal pay (thus preventing Australia from fulfilling its obligations under the convention), as somewhat disingenuous, and recalled it with a measure of embarrassment.

In 1960 Gaudron was awarded a federal government scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney, which she graduated with in 1962.

In 1961 she also commenced a part-time Bachelor of Laws degree, graduating in 1965 with first-class honours and the University's Medal for Law.

Gaudron was the second female recipient, after Elizabeth Evatt, and the first female part-time student to be awarded the medal.

While studying, Gaudron attempted to obtain articles of clerkship (then five years in duration), but was not successful.

She later said, "Many distinguished lawyers took a lot of trouble and effort to explain to me that it was not their policy to take on women as articled clerks."

Instead, she took a job with the Australian Public Service, although, in accordance with the then regulations, she was required to relinquish her employment when she married.

Gaudron was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in October 1968 after having completed her articles of clerkship and commenced practice as a barrister.

She attempted to buy a room for herself in one of the barristers' chambers in Sydney but was regularly knocked back because she was a woman.

When future High Court colleague Michael McHugh attempted to sell his room, the other members of his chambers would not let Gaudron buy it, although there were no other buyers.

She eventually shared a room with Janet Coombs, another pioneering female barrister.

The case, begun by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and supported by the Whitlam government, extended the reach of the original but limited equal pay decision of 1969.

Prior decisions had guaranteed equal pay only for certain specific occupations and later, certain limited industries (industries traditionally considered 'women's work', such as the textile industry), whereas this case extended the principle of equal pay to all workers.

Gaudron regularly argued before the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court in the early 1970s, particularly in the area of industrial law.

Gaudron's first major breakthrough was in 1970 with O'Shaughnessy v Mirror Newspapers Ltd, where as a 27-year-old junior counsel she successfully argued the matter single-handedly before the High Court after the plaintiff, Peter O'Shaughnessy, sacked his senior counsel, Clive Evatt QC, preferring her ability over the veteran.

According to O'Shaughnessy, 'she cut a valiant figure, this "slip of a girl", who stood unsupported before the five legal elders of the land.

They were obviously impressed by her courage, her sheer elegant dash, her shining intellect finding expression in felicitous language, her good manners, charm, poise.

And perhaps, when all is said and done, by her sheer cheek in taking on the case.'

In 1972 she became the first woman to be appointed to the Council of the New South Wales Bar.

Another one of Gaudron's significant cases was in 1972, when she successfully argued the Equal Pay case for the Whitlam Labor government before the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission.

Early in 1972, Gaudron had entered a bar with a male barrister friend when the waitress informed the friend that the bar did not serve women.

Gaudron "patiently explained to the barmaid that my friend didn't want a woman because he'd brought his own," eventually creating "something of a scene" which attracted the attention of Labor politician Clyde Cameron, who said that he didn't realise such sexual discrimination still existed.

Gaudron said that "the discrimination being practised in that particular hotel was nothing compared to the discrimination over which he would undoubtedly preside when he became Minister for Industrial Relations after the next election."

However, the Whitlam government was elected on 2 December, and Cameron duly became Minister for Industrial Relations.

Whitlam called Gaudron on 3 December to hire her to argue the case for equal pay.

She was the Solicitor-General of New South Wales from 1981 until 1987 before her appointment to the High Court.

In 1988, Gaudron was awarded an honorary doctorate in law from Macquarie University, and another from the University of Sydney in 1999.

After her retirement in 2002, she joined the International Labour Organization, serving as the President of its Administrative Tribunal from 2011 until 2014.