Place Matters: Women's lived and Imagined Experience of Legal Practice in Regional, Rural and Remote Communities in Queensland

Abstract

Female solicitors are not choosing to practise in regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas at the same rate as male solicitors and are more concentrated in city and suburban practice. Very little is understood about why this might be so. This thesis explores lived and ‘imagined’ experience and meaning-making as a way of understanding the attraction and retention of female solicitors in RRR communities. This study comprises two distinct but interrelated parts: the first involves a phenomenological study of the lived experience of female solicitors practising in RRR communities in Queensland. It asks 23 solicitors (male and female) about their experience of life and legal practice in their community. The second part of the research involves a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with 12 final year law students in order to explore their future practice intentions and attitudes to, and perceptions of, RRR practice. Each part of the research is designed to reflect different aspects of the attraction and retention equation. Interviewing already practising solicitors aims to gauge actual lived experience while the interviews with final year law students seeks to understand imagined experience. Together, these provide a picture of, or narrative about, the nature and dynamics of women’s career choices in the context of RRR practice.