Sisters-in-Law
By Holly McKenna
(for the First 100 Years – and the next 100 too)
The bravest sisters who came before us,
Smashing pieces of glass ceilings to dust
Beneath their feet; pulling up their own seat
At the table, the bench, wherever they
Pleased – seats once sturdy in their allegiance
To perceived superiority, since
Shown to be an unfounded claim, borne
Of prejudice. Now, we call ourselves witness
To this change in precedent ; evolution
Carried by those who opened doors we must
Ensure remain open. We are no longer
Begging audiences – we command them,
Captivate them, instead. Our words are our
Weapon, our resilience a promise:
To tread well the path, to stride forward today
That those who come next might follow in our footsteps.
Holly McKenna biography
Holly graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2019 with a first class LLB (Hons) and is now a postgraduate researcher at Masters level within the School of Law. During her undergraduate degree, Holly served as the Editor-in-Chief of the university’s Law Review for two years (2017-2019) and participated in several additional projects; including the European Comparative Law Project and summer school at the Fachhochschule der Polizei des Landes Brandenburg. Her undergraduate dissertation (‘Reinforcing Responsibility or Irresponsible Rhetoric? The case for reintroducing the doli incapax presumption in English criminal law’) focused on an area of child criminal justice in England & Wales and her current thesis assesses sexual crime and juror selection in Scottish criminal law.
Holly’s research interests lie in areas of criminal law, justice, procedure, evidence and theory and she has a broader interest in areas of feminist legal theory and feminist judgments. Outside of Law, Holly is also a passionate creative writer and photographer; and her work has been selected by several publications.
Read Holly's contribution to the 100 Voices for 100 Years project