First woman to serve as Speaker in an African Parliament
Women in Law
- Introduction
- Timeline
- Joyce Bamford-Addo
- Marion Billson
- Jill Black
- Elizabeth Butler-Sloss
- Eugenia Charles
- Lynda Clark
- Freda Corbet
- Coomee Rustom Dantra
- Leeona Dorrian
- Heather Hallett
- Frene Ginwala
- Rosalyn Higgins
- Daw Phar Hmee
- Lim Beng Hong
- Dorothy Knight Dix
- Sara Lawson
- Elizabeth Lane
- Theodora Llewelyn Davies
- Gladys Ramsarran
- Lucy See
- Evelyn Sharp
- Victoria Sharp
- Ingrid Simler
- Teo Soon Kim
- Ivy Williams
- The Significance of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919
- Podcasts
Home › Women in Law › Our Women › Joyce Bamford-Addo
The Rt Hon Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo JSC
Admitted 1949, Called 1961
Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo was born in March 1937 to an English father and a Ghanaian mother. She was educated at St Mary’s boarding school and OLA boarding school on the Cape Coast. She was called to the Bar in 1961.
She was the Speaker in the Parliament of Ghana from 2009 to 2013, the first woman to be appointed a speaker in Africa and elevating her to the third most important appointment in Ghana. She was a judge in the Supreme Court.
The Rt Hon Joyce Bamford-Addo JSC with Ghana's President John Atta Mills and Former US President Barack Obama, 11 July 2009 (JIM WATSON/AFP/GettyImages)
She was called to the Bar in Ghana after working in the UK for a year. She was appointed State Attorney from 1963 and became Chief State Attorney in 1973. She was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in 1976. She was appointed a Supreme Court Judge from 1994 to 2004.
In 1991 she became the Second Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Consultative Assembly in order to draft the 1992 constitution. In the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary election she was elected as the Speaker of the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.