Women and British Justice

Eve Was Framed

'This is an important book - it will make a substantial difference' Financial Times

This is a cogently argued examination of how the British legal system ignores, downgrades, underrates and discriminates against women-Kennedy has properly argued that a profession that practises law and pursues justice must be seen to be just, reasonable, unprejudiced, and open to public scrutiny. Bravissima!

A powerful and authoritative polemic-brave, forceful and eloquent. It may even change things

A powerful and authoritative polemic-Kennedy cites precedents and incontrovertible evidence to show how a 'web of prejudice, privilege and misinformation affects women' in all their dealings with the law-brave, forceful and eloquent.  It may even change things

Helena Kennedy QC is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers and public figures. She is a regular broadcaster, journalist and lecturer and throughout her career has focussed on giving voice to those who have least power in the system, championing civil liberties and civil rights. Her 1992 book Eve Was Framed led to a number of key reforms for women and was followed in 2004 by Just Law. She was the Master of Mansfield College, University of Oxford, from 2011 to 2018, and was awarded a life peerage in 1997. Born in Glasgow, she lives in London.

Eve Was Framed offers an impassioned, personal critique of the British legal system. Helena Kennedy focuses on the treatment of women in our courts - at the prejudices of judges, the misconceptions of jurors, the labyrinths of court procedures and the influence of the media. But the inequities she uncovers could apply equally to any disadvantaged group - to those whose cases are subtly affected by race, class poverty or politics, or who are burdened, even before they appear in court, by misleading stereotypes.

Just Law

'Comes the hour. Comes the book. If Kennedy can't stir a reaction, then nobody can' Observer

Remarkable - a passionate, cogent and eloquent defence of the idea of law as the framework for a just society... Vitally important

This is a good book, well-written, pacey and to the point

Admirable... Without Helena Kennedy's passionate defence of the rule of law we might be completely in the hands of an uncaring government

Passionate and well-argued. This is a book not just for lawyers but for anyone who cares about the boundaries between the state and the individual... An excellent, courageous and compelling howl of outrage from an insider who has refused to be intimidated

This is a remarkable book by a remarkable woman. It is both a polemical assault on the actions of the present British Government...and a manifesto for an alternative agenda. All that Kennedy writes is refreshingly free form inhibition... Justice does indeed matter to us all

Acute, questioning, humane and passionately concerned for justice, Helena Kennedy is one of the most powerful voices in legal circles in Britain today. Here she roundly challenges the record of modern governments over the fundamental values of equality, fairness and respect for human dignity. She argues that in the last twenty years we have seen a steady erosion of civil liberties, culminating today in extraordinary legislation, which undermines long established freedoms. Are these moves a crude political response to demands for law and order? Or is the relationship between citizens and the state being covertly reframed and redefined?

Helena Kennedy

An excellent and forensic takedown... fascinating and chilling... women are being let down wholesale by a justice system designed with men in mind. And almost the worst thing is, it doesn't have to be this way

An unflinching look at women in the justice system… an important book because it challenges acquiescence to everyday sexism and inspires change

Helena Kennedy has written a chilling exposé of how the law has historically failed women. Taking no prisoners, Kennedy outlines the damage we must undo, and the changes we must make. Eve was Shamed is a necessary book for the #MeToo era

Passionate and persuasive proof that equal justice is an ideal yet to be achieved. Drawing upon her outstanding career at the defence Bar and of leading reform in Parliament, Helena Kennedy eloquently urges an end to the discrimination and dehumanisation that women suffer in the courts, and in their lives

A call to arms, but it is also a whistle-stop tour of the wide-ranging societal and legal changes which have taken place over the last 40 years. The breadth of her book is enormous... In order to explain where we are, Kennedy looks back to where we have come. She does this most powerfully

Justice for women in this country is failing at every point of our interaction with it, for reasons ranging from age-old prejudice to modern austerity... Yet in her rigorous tenacity, her undimmed enthusiasm for the fight, Helena Kennedy spreads the irrational buoyancy of which revolutions are made

A shocking wake-up call, this book will have you demanding justice

if I were to be charged with a crime, I would definitely want Helena Kennedy QC in my corner

Kennedy… writes with calm authority. Her analysis of how such women fail to conform to what remain white, male ideas about appropriate female behaviour and femininity in court…is incisive

As eerily persuasive a read as you'd expect from one of the country's top barristers... Kennedy lays bare a panoply of injustices that explain the rage unleashed post-Weinstein... Kennedy’s vivacious prose and plentiful research yields a pacy, important read that both elucidates the current climate and offers sage pointers on where to go next

A passionately argued eye-opener…both a deeply depressing read and a hugely energising wake-up call for anyone concerned with justice, diversity and human dignity

Compelling… The marginal advances that have been secured fade into irrelevance in comparison with the horrific chronicle of shortcomings that exist for women in the courts…bang up to date… Kennedy writes well and illustrates her cases with heartrending individual examples

How British Law is Failing Women

Two women a week are killed by a spouse or partner. Every seven minutes a woman is raped. Now is the time for change. 
 
‘Fascinating and chilling’ Caroline Criado Perez, bestselling author of Invisible Women 
 
 Helena Kennedy, one of our most eminent lawyers and defenders of human rights, examines the pressing new evidence that women are being discriminated against when it comes to the law. From the shocking lack of female judges to the scandal of female prisons and the double discrimination experienced by BAME women, Kennedy shows with force and fury that change for women must start at the heart of what makes society just. 
 
 ‘An unflinching look at women in the justice system… an important book because it challenges acquiescence to everyday sexism and inspires change’ The Times

Helena Kennedy

Praise for Misjustice

Stimulating and scary

An excellent and forensic takedown... fascinating and chilling... women are being let down wholesale by a justice system designed with men in mind. And almost the worst thing is, it doesn't have to be this way

An unflinching look at women in the justice system… an important book because it challenges acquiescence to everyday sexism and inspires change

Stimulating and scary

An excellent and forensic takedown... fascinating and chilling... women are being let down wholesale by a justice system designed with men in mind. And almost the worst thing is, it doesn't have to be this way

An unflinching look at women in the justice system… an important book because it challenges acquiescence to everyday sexism and inspires change

Stimulating and scary

An excellent and forensic takedown... fascinating and chilling... women are being let down wholesale by a justice system designed with men in mind. And almost the worst thing is, it doesn't have to be this way

An unflinching look at women in the justice system… an important book because it challenges acquiescence to everyday sexism and inspires change

Books by Helena Kennedy

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