Julie Dickson
Photo credit: John Cairns
What did your legal education at the University of Glasgow give you?
My legal education at the University of Glasgow honed my capacities for independent thought, and gave me a deep and enduring love of my subject – the philosophy of law.
What struggles have you faced as a female in your profession?
I sometimes feel there is an overly adversarial approach to discussion in debates in my subject in both oral and written form which I think it best to move away from. Such adversarial approaches generate more heat than light in my view.
What progress have you seen being made throughout your career?
During my career there has been a significant increase in the number of women in senior academic and senior administrative positions in UK universities. At my current university, the University of Oxford, a good many heads of Colleges are women, and the University also elected its first female Vice Chancellor in 2016. Despite this, there is still much work to do to ensure equality of opportunity in academia.
What progress do you think will be made/would you like to see in the next 100 years for women in law?
I hope that women in law in the developing world will be an ever louder voice of advocacy for those suffering injustices and lacking sufficient power to right them.
How can men support women in their profession?
Be a good ally.
“I am proud to be a woman in law because……
the best way to inspire is by example, and the example I hope to offer my students is someone proudly from a working class background, who has attended and worked at several excellent UK universities, and who finds it both a privilege and a pleasure to have a job teaching incredibly bright and energetic young people.”