Cherie Blair: 'If all we've done is replace posh boys with posh girls then we haven't done enough'

• Interview by Granada Reports correspondent Ann O'Connor

One of the UK's top barristers Cherie Blair is calling for a law field that reflects "the experiences and the life of a majority of the population".

The barrister from Liverpool went to state school and says her mother really pushed her to get to where she is.

Mrs Blair said: "My mum was a clever girl herself, had to leave school when her mother died and her father was a miner and she had a ten year old brother.

"Her father needed her to look after him and her brother. So she really, really wanted my sister and I to have the educational opportunities she didn't have."

Mrs Blair went on to do exactly that, achieving the top marks for the bar exam in the country.

But in her early years when starting out as a lawyer, she said it wasn't her class that was the only thing to create a barrier but her gender too.

"The big issue was that I was a girl," she continued.

"Very early on when I started law, there was a textbook describing the legal system to would be lawyers ,and the professor there said girls could do law but it was better they be solicitors because a woman's voice wasn't strong enough to command a court room."

Her class came into play when attending the social events required of barristers, many of them including things that she wasn't used to.

"Barristers are required to do a certain amount of dining with other barristers before they qualify, so faced with an array of knives and forks at the end the port came round," she said.

"I've never tasted port in my life and I didn't know which way you were supposed to pass the port across the table, it was a big learning curve for me."

She continued: "That and of course I had a Liverpool accent - so all of these things made you feel slightly that am I really supposed to be here? I was a stubborn thing, I still am really, I was determined to prove I had the right to be there."

The Cherie Blair Foundation aims to create opportunities for women but Mrs Blair says that it's also important that class and experiences are considered, especially in the field of law.

"I don't think today the fact that you are a woman is going to be a big handicap to you in a career in the law...I do think that if all we've done is succeeding in replacing posh boys with posh girls then what we haven't done is actually have a legal profession which feeds into the judges, which reflects the experiences and the life of the vast majority of the population," she said.

Through her organisation and charity work, she regularly speaks at schools but the difference between what different schooling teaching their pupils and the access to information they have is clear.

Mrs Blair said: "I go and speak at state schools about my career and being a lawyer.

"The questions I get in those schools, what is the difference between a barrister and a solicitor? I occasionally go, and not so often, to public school and when I go to public schools, they don't ask me what's the different between barrister and a solicitor, they already know."

"We need to enable everybody to get that knowledge of how law works and what those opportunities are so there's a more level playing field."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To know...