‘Sex has nothing to do with it’, said Hong Kong’s first female judge Helen Lo
- Lo, who specialised in family law, broke through the all-male stronghold when she was appointed to the District Court
- ‘I don’t find the fact that I am Hongkong’s only woman judge formidable because I have worked in a male dominated field all my life’
“Woman set for benchmark appointment,” ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on September 8, 1986. “Ms Helen Lo, 53, will be breaking through the previously all-male stronghold of top judicial posts when she is appointed to the District Court.
“While other common law countries have had women judges for years, there has never been one in Hong Kong,” the story continued, adding that Lo’s appointment was also unusual in that she was a specialist in family law. “Previously the judiciary has only taken on more all-round people.”
Lo, who was born and educated in Hong Kong before qualifying to become a lawyer in England, was appointed to the District Court by then-governor Edward Youde on October 30.
Despite her history-making certification, Lo insisted that her gender played no role in her selection. “Sex has nothing to do with it,” she told the Post. “It is more a matter of the best person getting the job.”
I have never felt disadvantaged being a female,” she told the paper. “In fact I have found it has great advantages
Lo “describes herself as a successful career woman, an unsuccessful housewife, liberated and objective”, the Post reported on November 1. “She says she is a part-time mother, wife, horse-judge and solicitor but will be launching herself into her new and esteemed career with untempered vigour.”