Celebrating the legacy of a bold woman in South Africa
Madeline Wookey fought for the right to practise law in South Africa as a woman. Though she ultimately did not succeed, her action inspires women’s societies to motivate for the removal of discrimination against their gender.
TODAY marks Worker’s Day, and we spoke to a Kloof resident, Heather Wills, who shared an interesting story about her grandmother, Madeline Una Wookey, who played a vital role in getting women admitted into the Legal Chambers as advocates and attorneys.
“Wookey was a young woman at the time of the suffragettes. She became very interested in civic affairs and wanted to study to be a lawyer. Her application was denied as she was a woman. There was a landmark court case partially financed by the Cape Argus to contest the decision by the Cape Law Society,” explained Heather.
Heather said a firm of attorneys was willing to enroll Wookey as an articled clerk, but she met with opposition from the Cape Law Society, which refused to register her articles.
“Wookey submitted an application to the Cape Supreme Court, which ordered the Society to register her. The Law Society appealed this decision to the Appellate Division, arguing that Wookey could not be admitted as an attorney because she was a woman.
“The Appellate Division was called upon to decide whether the term ‘persons’ used in the statute governing admission of attorneys to the bar included only ‘male persons’ or also included women. They determined that ‘persons’ included only male persons, thus excluding women from the legal profession,” said Wills.
Born in 1891, Wookey was the youngest daughter of missionary parents, Alfred and Jane Wookey, sent by the London Missionary Society (LMS) to Africa in 1870.
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The Wookeys were based in Kuruman, Northern Cape. It took a year by ox wagon to travel from Algoa Bay (formerly Port Elizabeth) to Kuruman to join the Moffat Mission. Kuruman lies in a parched region of the Northern Cape but was able to develop into an important settlement as the largest natural spring in the southern hemisphere is located there. This is known as the Eye of Kuruman.
She was sent to school in England at the age of six, as were her siblings. At the age of 12, she returned to South Africa due to ill health and continued her schooling in Vryburg, Northern Cape.
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After finishing the schooling available in Vryburg, Wills said her grandmother was employed by a firm of attorneys in Kimberley, Rosenblatt and De Beer, where she saved sufficient funds to then matriculate in Grahamstown and study to be an educator. She was offered a scholarship to Rhodes University.
Wookey, however, declined this offer as she had promised to return to her firm of attorneys in Kimberley.
“Having become interested in civic affairs and also believing strongly in ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, she intended to qualify as an attorney herself. The Incorporated Law Society declined her application on the grounds that she was a woman. This was at the time of the suffragettes. In 1912, the Cape Times started a shilling fund to assist Miss Wookey in what became a landmark case: Madeline Una Wookey vs Cape Law Society 1912.
“She was represented by WP Schreiner, the youngest brother of the famous South African author, Olive Schreiner, and Beauclerk Upington of the Incorporated Law Society, the son of a former prime minister of the Cape.
“She won her case, but this judgment was soon overturned as the existing law of the country could not admit women to the profession. The word ‘person’ in Act 12 of 1858 was used by Legislature in respect of a profession of which it was never contemplated women should become members,” said Wills.
Though Wookey ultimately did not succeed, her action did inspire women’s societies to motivate for the removal of the discrimination against their gender.
In 1923, an act was passed, making women eligible to practise as advocates and attorneys.
Then, in 2023, the Centenary Year of Women in Law was celebrated. The incredible and unfair judgment of 1912 was ceremoniously overturned in the Supreme Court of Johannesburg and Pretoria in 1923. The surviving descendants of Wookey, present at the 2023 ceremony, were invited to shake hands with Judge Roland Sutherland, Acting Deputy Judge President of South Africa.
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