Healthy Tasmania podcast aims to break barriers for women facing the legal system

NOVEMBER 27 2020 - 7:49PM

The difficulties faced by women as they navigate the family law system has been laid bare in a new podcast from Healthy Tasmania.

The podcast is called "Rule of Thumb" and it highlights the gender inequality that has been able to fester as women come into contact with the legal system in Australia.

In part, the series was made to offer listeners an insight into the difficulties and inequalities women face in legal procedure.

But it also almost acts as a 'how to' guide, should a female ever have to navigate their way through the complex family court.

For podcast host Penny Terry, it was when she began researching the area that the real necessity for the education offered through the series became blatantly obvious.

"It really is about giving people the opportunity to actually think about this stuff, because we don't think about it until we really need to, and sometimes then it's too late," Ms Terry said.

"What I've learnt in this process is that women often find themselves vulnerable and in a particularly position when they need legal support.

"Quite often women have been through so much before they even make a decision to call the lawyer.

"So this is about pointing to a few issues that might be there in the legal system, but also to give women knowledge which then can empower them."

The podcast has been in production for a large chunk of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was also the initiator for why Ms Terry thought it was a good idea to proceed with.

"Another similar podcast I have got such huge reach and we realised that people did want to hear about this in a different way, particularly during COVID" she said.

"People often think the law and legal system is really boring and complicated, but what this podcast does is make it really interesting and much more simple.

"But also shows that it's really uncomfortable."

Women's Legal Service Tasmania has helped with the production of the podcast and WLST CEO Yvette Cehtel appears alongside Ms Terry on each episode.

Ms Cehtel sees first hand on a day-to-day basis the challenges faced by women as they come into the legal system and offers her knowledge in helping describe what legal jargon actually means in the series.

"For us as a service it's really been a refocus on our purpose for existing and how important it is," she said.

"We know what this information is, we deal with it every day, but it's about getting it out there from different perspectives.

"There is a need still for a specialist women's legal service because we are not all equal. And I think the podcast explains why that's the case through people's personal stories and their experience with the law."

Ms Cehtel actively spreads information about gender inequality and the legal system and difficulties faced by women in the state and said the podcast was another avenue for spreading the message.

The podcast is available here and will be followed with a second series in the future.

This story is courtesy of the Examiner Newspaper located here