So what is ‘Portia’ anyway?

Since I started this blog, I’ve had a couple of questions about the name; The Portia Post (mainly from my mum, hi mum!). The q’s go like this:

What does Portia have to do with suffragettes? Or early female lawyers? 

Well, this blog post is here to answer those burning questions, and explain once and for all WHY the name Portia is so interlinked with women lawyers.

Portia is a really pretty name with a really sucky meaning. According to Baby Name Wizard, it was derived ‘from the Latin Porcia, a feminine form of Porcius, an old Roman family name probably derived from porcus (a pig, a hog).’ Charming, I know.

Portia is also a character in a play, by arguably the most famous playwright of all time. That’s it, good ole’ William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare wrote a play called ‘The Merchant of Venice‘, in which Antonio, the aforementioned merchant, lends money to his friend so he can marry the wealthy Portia. HOWEVER, Antonio doesn’t actually have the money (we’ve all been there), so he borrows it from Shylock–a Jewish moneylender. If Antonio fails to repay the money, Shylock gets a pound of his flesh (yikes). The Royal Shakespeare Company, describes it as ‘Shakespeare’s comedy centred around love, money, prejudice and social injustice’

Can you see certain themes which may be applicable to say, both the fight for women’s suffrage AND early female lawyers?

Portia is one of the main characters in The Merchant of Venice. She is a wealthy heiress, grieving the loss of her father, who had certain VERY specific requirements for any man who wished to marry her. Namely, they had to choose the right casket (one was filled with gold, another silver, another lead). However, Portia is one clever lady–she exploits loopholes in her father’s wishes, allowing those suitors who she wasn’t interested in to choose the wrong casket, and subtly hinting the right casket to choose for the man she does want to marry.

After Antonio is unable to repay Shylock his money, Portia again uses her wit and quick thinking to save the day. Shylock takes Antonio to the court of the Duke of Venice. There, a young lawyer calling himself Balthazar defends Antonio and asks Shylock to show mercy. Shylock refuses, and Balthazar then says that Shylock is entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh for failing to repay the money loaned, HOWEVER he is not entitled to even a drop of Antonio’s blood. If a drop of blood falls, then under Venetian law, Shylock’s estate would be forfeit.

Shylock then accepts money in lieu of the pound of flesh. Balthazar then cites a law which states that Shylock cannot except the money because he’s already refused it in court. ALSO, he argues–he threatened the life of a Venetian subject, and as an ‘alien’ (AKA Jew, coz anti-semitism obvs wasn’t a big deal), he has forfeited all his property.

BUT GUESS WHAT, Balthazar was really Portia, pulling a Mrs. Doubtfire move WAYYY before it was cool.

So, in summary, Portia appeared as an advocate in court, when it was COMPLETELY unheard of for a woman to do so.

As such, when real-life women decided they’d like to give the law a go, every newspaper writer UNDER THE SUN referred to them as, ya guessed it, Portia. Literally, you can’t get through a newspaper w/o a Portia reference.

When I was working on my PhD proposal, it really amused me just how many headlines and comments about female lawyers featured the word ‘Portia’. I suppose the constant referencing can be interpreted in many ways, but in my opinion there are two solid ones.

So, when I was deciding what my PhD blog should be titled, I naturally gravitated towards including the name ‘Portia’. Why? Well, The Portia Post sounded kind of snappy, and honestly–I thought it was really funny that time after time, numerous women were compared to a Shakespearean character, just because they happened to want a legal career.

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