26 - ‘A Homemaker as Well as a Judge’

Summary

Biographies of Lady Hale refer routinely to her as a ‘homemaker as well as a judge’. Although her career is not exactly short of alternative inspiration for the byline writer or public lecture compere, the phrase is almost ubiquitous. When introducing Lady Hale’s recent Chatham House lecture on ‘Legal Determinants of Health’, Professor Lawrence Gostin emphasised the ‘homemaker’ motif in his introduction as he explained – while gesturing at Lady Hale – it ‘just so expresses who you are’ and the ‘humility that you have’. As Auchmuty and Rackley demonstrate, biographies of legal women so often ‘insert men into the picture’ by placing their successes in a heterosexual context. Describing Lady Hale as a ‘homemaker’, they argue, follows this same pattern by emphasising her ‘traditional’ success in finding a husband and bearing children, rather than her unprecedented career. The source is, however – as Auchmuty and Rackley recognise – Lady Hale herself. The full excerpt in her self-penned biography on the Supreme Court website reads: ‘A homemaker as well as a judge, she thoroughly enjoyed helping the artists and architects create a new home for the Supreme Court.’