ABSTRACT
It has been a long journey for women to achieve recognition as judicial voices of legal authority at the peak tier of Australia’s legal system. Women’s ‘letting in’ to the legal profession—the necessary precursor to women being appointed as judges—was premised on women’s (legal) status as ‘persons’. Justice Mary Gaudron keenly perceived the weight of expectations generated by her appointment to the High Court of Australia in 1987. Gendered difference is the issue, but it only becomes so when there is more than one woman on the bench, indeed even when it is only one woman on the bench. The arrival of women not only puts the pre-existing gender regime on notice, potentially at least, it also renders it visible. The gender dynamics on the High Court have been carefully crafted. Up until 2020 no woman had ever replaced another woman—lest anyone get the idea that there are seats reserved for women.
