The difficulties faced by women as they navigate the family law system has been laid bare in a new series of podcasts by Women’s Legal Service Tasmania in conjunction with Healthy Tasmania.

The podcast is called Rule of Thumb and it highlights the challenges woman face when they come into contact with the legal system in Australia.

The podcast features conversations from women with experience of the system, lawyers who assist and represent women, and counsellors who provide them with support.

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 guide should a woman ever have to navigate her way through the complexities of the family law system.

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania devised the production of the podcasts and secured funding through the Commonwealth Government’s Women’s Safety Package.

Women’s Legal Service Tasmania CEO Yvette Cehtel sees firsthand on a day-to-day basis the challenges faced by women as they come into the legal system.

“For us as a service it’s really been a refocus on our purpose for existing, and how important that is for the women we see.

“We know what this information is, we deal with it every day, but it’s about getting it out there in the community from different perspectives. Those perspectives from the women who spoke about their experiences and the people who support them tell us alot about how challenging these issues are for women, and even more so for women who are vulnerable.

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 women’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 Tasmania and said the podcast was another avenue for spreading the message.

“The challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, brought home the need to find other ways to communicate with people who were restricted from attending legal services or support services.

Podcasts have got such huge reach and we wanted to spread the message as widely as we could because we are concerned about the impact COVID-19 has had on many of our clients.

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.”

The podcast is available on Whooshkaa, through the player below, or wherever you get your podcasts.  This series will be followed with a second series, coming soon.