At the Feminist Legal Clinic, Gudrun Willcocks meets Anna Kerr, a different kind of lawyer ... Matriarchy takes on the patriarchy ... Wages for wives would see a reduction in domestic violence ... The outsider working on the inside ... Discrimination and motherhood ... A bandaid service at the Family Court
Anna Kerr: why do women stay?Anna Kerr, founder of Sydney's Feminist Legal Clinic, is quite comfortable labelling herself a radical feminist. "The word 'radical' does unfortunately carry many negative connotations," the human rights lawyer says on a Monday at the Glebe office she shares with Pride History Group.
"But really it just means that these are feminists who believe there is a need for fundamental change, not just tinkering at the edges of existing patriarchal structures of society."
Radical feminists tend to view prostitution, pornography and surrogacy as inherently exploitative. They don't like gender stereotypes, but acknowledge sex-based differences.
Kerr works predominantly on a pro bono basis. She is paid by Legal Aid to advise victims of domestic violence at various courts a few days a month and she teaches criminology at the University of Western Sydney.
The balance of her schedule - parenting, litigation and advocacy work for the Feminist Legal Clinic - is underwritten by her partner's income. Kerr need not work like a man in order to be taken seriously by men; some would say that is more in line with liberal feminism.
"Living and working like men is not necessarily liberating for women. Our patriarchal capitalist society acknowledges value through payment and women's work is systematically undervalued despite it's essential contribution to the economy."
Kerr believes there is a need to compensate women for work performed in the home and community. If women were socially and financially gratified for the provision they make, she estimates there would be a reduction in domestic and sexual violence. Men commit the majority of violent crimes, while women raising children are often dependent on their spouses.
The discrepancy between school and work hours, for instance, is just one of numerous imbalances that women have to navigate.
If there was "some kind of universal basic income for mothers free of welfare stigma," the power dynamic would tip.
"And we ask why women stay," she exasperates.
Kerr is a mother. She is about five-foot-two, with warm, green eyes and deep brown bangs that cover strong eyebrows. She has three sons and a daughter to her partner of 30 years and when I arrive at the clinic, she is mothering two political science students from UTS with casual attentiveness.
"Pride History has the messy half of the office," she said, as the young women group notes on maternal rights splayed across a small round table. Their task is to write and edit Wikipedia entries on the topic.
The space, funded by the City of Sydney, is on the second floor of Benledi House and it's snug with office paraphernalia and photographs of rainbow buses pinned to the walls.
"The students are considering research that documents the tendency by courts, in Australia and overseas, to remove children from mothers to be placed in the care of fathers - even where a mother has alleged the father is a perpetrator of domestic violence or child sexual abuse. We are looking at the influence of claims that mothers engage in 'parental alienation' in this context."
Benledi House: home to the FLC
As an advocate and author, Kerr is direct. She is articulate and perceptive - not aggressive or arrogant. The Feminist Legal Clinic, which incorporated in March 2017, is the culmination of her most interesting work.
Her first job was with the Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern. It was 1991 and she working in the prison unit after graduating from Macquarie University with a psychology/law degree. She was also in love with a Chinese man.
Confronting racial discrimination appealed to her grit - these were issues she saw antagonising her own kin and one suspects the work engendered a sense of agency. With five Aboriginal nieces, her awareness is even more heightened.
When she had her first child the effects of sexual discrimination became more apparent. Kerr already considered herself an outsider. "It's just that feeling of not being one of the crowd. I think it's character building."
As a high school student, she read Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch and strongly identified as a feminist. She studied gender relations as part of her psychology degree and discrimination as part of her law degree, but it was only on becoming a mother, that the inequity of the "whole system" became more personal.
"It - feminism - has become the focus on my work since experiencing firsthand the discrimination that comes with motherhood," and shortly after started working at the NSW Women's Legal Service.
On the Feminist Legal Clinic website, a blog charts Kerr's response to articles on women's rights. There are dozens of her critiques, such as "How we are failing victims of family violence" and "Equality with a Vengeance: the over-incarceration of women", co-written with Rita Shakel.
There's also a link to her public appearances. In July, Kerr chaired a panel "The need to recognise maternal rights in International Human Rights" for a conference on Motherhood at Sydney University. At the same event, she presented a paper "Motherhood for Sale?".
That Kerr would like to see motherhood prosper as an area of scholarship is no secret. At the FLC, the proportion of the oeuvre it occupies is growing.
After the federal election, the Women's Family Law Court Support Service lost its funding and the Feminist Legal Clinic picked-up the slack. Kerr and some 20 volunteers - students and social workers, academics and retired lawyers, graduates gaining experience and immigrants familiarising themselves with local practise - now manage the amenity which has the characteristics of a lounge service for women at the Family Court.
"The Family Court is not a particularly friendly jurisdiction for women self-representing. It can be quiet and then a woman comes in and she really wants someone to sit with her for the whole time."
She hopes that soon the FLC will offer legal counsel. The professional indemnity insurance that will permit them to do so is in process and in the meantime, the clinic functions as a support service and research hub.
"To say there are not enough resources ... there are women falling through the gaps all the time," Kerr laments.