Engendering 'rural' practice: women’s lived experience of legal practice in regional, rural and remote communities in Queensland

The experience and marginalised status of women lawyers within the Australian legal profession has been well documented over the past two decades. However, very little is known empirically about the ways in which 'rural' space and place might transform or impact that experience, and their relationship with the retention of women in rural, regional and remote (RRR) practice. This article reports on a phenomenological study of the lived experience of female solicitors practising in RRR communities in Queensland. The study asked 23 solicitors (male and female) about their experience of life and legal practice in their communities. This article concludes that women's practice experience is more complex, and shaped by a distinctive gender experience. It highlights the role that socio-cultural constructions of gender and 'rurality' can play in the negotiation of womenʼs legal practice experience and considers the implications of this for their retention to practice.