Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Top judge highlights Archers plot in lecture on women’s rights
THE UK’s most senior judge has highlighted a storyline in The Archers radio soap when reviewing the development of the law relating to women’s rights.
Lady Hale, president of the Supreme Court, twice mentioned the show’s account of domestic violence involving fictional couple Rob Titchener and Helen Archer when delivering a lecture to lawyers called ‘Celebrating Women’s Rights’. She outlined a number of issues when discussing the development of the law over the past three decades at the Birmingham Law Society.
Lady Hale, the most senior woman judge in British history, referred to the storyline when explaining how the law had historically failed to recognise that domestic abuse might cover controlling behaviour other than physical violence and the phenomenon of women being so oppressed by their abuser that they felt unable to escape.
“Women are afraid of many more subtle forms of behaviour, the forms of behaviour which listeners to The Archers heard – cutting off contact with friends and family, constant belittling, destroying confidence, depriving of money and employment outside the home, rendering powerless,” she said. “Mention of The Archers of course leads to the other problem which was just beginning to be recognised in 1984 – the phenomenon of women who were so oppressed by their abuser that they felt unable to escape and seek help elsewhere and were eventually driven to attack or even kill him.”
Lady Hale said there were “many reasons to be cheerful”, with more women in senior public positions and feminist legal studies being taken seriously by unversities.