A Timeline of Women’s History
in the Legal Profession
By Angela Nicole Johnson1
1638
Margaret Brent became the executor of the estate of Lord Calvert, governor of the
Maryland Colony. She was involved in more than 100 court cases in Maryland and
Virginia2. Although it is known that she was the first woman to practice law in colonial
America, little else is known about women practicing law until the mid-1800’s.3
1745
Pennsylvanian frontierswoman and poet Susanna Wright becomes a prothonotary of the
colony, enhancing her stature as a legal counselor to her mostly illiterate neighbors, for
whom she prepares will, deeds, indentures and other contracts. She also served as an
arbitrator in property disputes.4
1796
Lucy Terry Prince of Vermont, born in Africa and enslaved in the United States but freed
via purchase by her husband, appears in a property dispute before the U.S. Supreme
Court regarding some farmland. Though she is represented by future governor of
Vermont, Isaac Tichnor, Prince presents the oral argument herself. She wins, and Justice
Samuel Chase compliments her skill. She is best known as a poet rather than as the first
woman and possibly the first African-American to argue before the Supreme Court.5
1821
Emma Willard establishes the Troy Female Seminary, the first state-chartered institution
for the education of girls, with a broader curriculum than ever had existed before.6
1833
Oberlin, the first women’s college began its existence.7
1868
Myra Bradwell creates the “Chicago Legal News,” a widely circulated and regarded legal
newspaper which published information about court opinions, laws, and court
1
This timeline evolved from my independent study in women in the legal profession at Indiana University South
Bend during the Spring 2011 semester and is being continuously updated. While I hope this timeline will be of use
to others, I ask that proper credit be given for my time spent in compiling this information. If you have any questions
on how to cite this piece, please do not hesitate to contact me. Additionally, I would appreciate hearing from you on
how I can improve and add to this timeline. I may be contacted at [email protected].
2
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
3
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 108-109.
4
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
5
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
6
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
7
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
ordinances.8 As early as the second edition, she begins a column on “Law Relating to
Women,” calling for suffrage and reporting on women attorneys even before such women
sought formal admission to the bar.9
1868
The Chicago Legal News notes in February that Mary E. Magoon has her own law office
in the town of North English, Iowa. Although Magoon is not a member of that state’s
formal bar, such admission was often not needed for practice at the county level.10
1868
Brooklyn born, Lemma Barkaloo is the first woman to apply for admission to Columbia
University, two others immediately follow suit – giving Columbia the dubious distinction
of being the first Ivy League law school to reject women. Columbia’s George
Templeton Strong entered in his diary: “Application from three infatuated young women
to the law school. No woman shall degrade herself by practicing law in New York
especially if I can save her “Women’s Rights Women’ are uncommonly loud and
offensive of late. I loathe the lot.”11
1869
Barkaloo becomes the first woman to enter a formal legal education12 when she is
accepted to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and attends her first law classes
in the fall. She quit after her first year after much harassment from her male classmates.
She passed the Missouri bar exam but died soon after during a typhoid epidemic in 1870.
Eight years later the United States Biographical Dictionary said that Lemma Barkaloo
had “died of over-mental exertion.”13
1869
After a period of “self-directed reading” and apprenticeship, Arabella (Belle A.)
Mansfield is granted admission to practice law in Iowa, making her the first officially
recognized woman lawyer in the United States.14 She is just 23 years old.15
1869
Myra Bradwell applies to the Illinois Bar, but is rejected on grounds of her sex.16
8
"Myra Colby Bradwell." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 17 Dec. 2010
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/76865/Myra-Colby-Bradwell>.
9
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
10
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
11
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
12
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 109.
13
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
14
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996; A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New
Millennium; and http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womensfirsts1.html.
15
Stanford Law. http://wlh-static.law.stanford.edu/papers/sleeth.pdf. (Accessed March 14, 2011).
16
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
1870
Ada H. Kepley, of Illinois, graduates from the Union College of Law in Chicago. She is
the first woman lawyer to graduate from a law school.17
1870
Esther McQuigg Morris became the first woman judge in the nation when she was
appointed as the justice of the peace in South Pass City, Wyoming. Morris had played an
important role in drafting and winning passage of Wyoming’s Women’s Suffrage Bill.
Her husband, John Morris, a local saloonkeeper, came into court and created a noisy
ruckus over his wife’s new job. Esther Morris fined him and when he refused to pay, she
packed him off to jail. She stepped down after a year of service, most probably due to
turmoil at home. Not one of the many cases she handed was reversed by a higher court.18
1870
Carrie Burnham Kilgore, the first woman in New York State to win a degree in medicine
in 1864, tried for another first when she applied to the University of Pennsylvania Law
School. Rejected, she attempted to buy individual tickets to attend lectures. One of the
law professors, E. Spencer Miller, ungrammatically told her: “I do not know what he
Board of Trustees will do, but as for me, if they admit a woman I will resign for I will
neither lecture to niggers nor women.”19
1871
Belva Ann Lockwood matriculates at the new National University Law School after
being rejected during the past three years by the law schools at Georgetown University,
Howard University, and Columbian College (renamed George Washington University in
1904). Georgetown honored Lockwood in the 1970’s by placing Lockwood’s statue on
prominent display in the law library.20
1872
Charlotte E. Ray, daughter of leaders of New York’s underground railroad,21 becomes the
first African American woman lawyer in the United States. She had been working as a
teacher at Howard since 1869 and applied to Howard’s law school under the name “C.E.
Ray.” Her admission was in error but the last school was too embarrassed to expel one of
its own teachers. However, she was unable to make a living working as a lawyer because
she had difficulty attracting enough clients, despite being among the top students in her
graduating class.
1872
Illinois passes a bill drafted by Alta M. Hulett which provides that no person can be
excluded from any occupation, profession, or employment because of sex. In light of this
legislation, Alta M. Hulett may apply to sit for the bar exam in the State of Illinois (she
17
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womensfirsts1.html
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
19
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
20
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
21
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 109.
18
was previously denied prior to the passage of this bill). This legislation passes while the
Bradwell v. Illinois (1872) appeal is pending in the United States Supreme Court.
Bradwell, still waiting on the United States Supreme Court appeal does not reapply for
inclusion to the Illinois bar.22
1873
After passing the bar exam (and receiving the highest score on the test) Alta Hulett was
admitted to the Illinois bar on her nineteenth birthday, becoming Illinois’ first woman
lawyer.23 Hulett was not only the first woman attorney in Illinois, but also the youngest
female attorney in the world.24
1873
Myra Bradwell appeals to the United States Supreme Court in what has been called the
first sex discrimination case to be heard by the highest court in the land (Bradwell v.
Illinois, 1873).25 Bradwell asserted her right to a license to practice law in Illinois,
arguing she qualified because she was a United States Citizen. This case asked the
question, is the right to obtain a license to practice law guaranteed by the Fourteenth
Amendment to all citizens of the United States? The answer was no.26 The Supreme
Court holds that states may statutorily deny women the right to practice law.27 Justice
Miller argued the right to practice law did not depend on citizenship. Justice Bradley
stated it was “natural and proper for women to be excluded from the legal profession. He
cited the importance maintaining the “respective spheres of man and woman,” with
women performing the duties of motherhood and wife in accordance with the “law of the
Creator.”28
1874
Alta Hulett passed away at the age of twenty-three. Newspapers considered this “proof”
that women should stay away from the legal profession.
1875
The number of states permitting women to practice law in their courts rises to nine
(District of Columbia-1872, Illinois-1873, Indiana–1875, Maine–1872, Michigan-1871,
Ohio–1873, Utah–1872, and Wisconsin–1875).29
1877
At the urging of Livinia Goodell, a female lawyer who had sought admission to the
Wisconsin Bar, the Wisconsin legislature revised a recently passed equal employment
statute to make it read even more specifically: “No person shall be denied admission or
22
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
23
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
24
“Legal Pioneers: Four of Illinois First Woman Lawyers.” Meg Gorecki. Illinois Bar Journal. October 1990.
25
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
26
Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) 83 U.S. 130.
27
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
28
Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) 83 U.S. 130.
29
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
license to practice as an attorney in any court of this state on account of sex.” Two years
later, a judge finally granted Goodell her license. In 1980, only a year after her victory,
Goodell died at the age of forty-one. The Chicago Journal published news of her death
and asked whether women are able to endure the hard usage and severe mental
application incidental to a legal professional career.30
1879
Myra Bradwell and Belva Ann Lockwood’s “An Act to Relieve Certain Legal
Disabilities of Women” passed the House of Representatives and the Senate (after a
massive almost single handed campaign by Bradwell and Lockwood). President
Rutherford Hayes signed the “Lockwood Bill”31 into law on February, 1879. This act
granted women lawyers access to federal courts. One month later, Belva Ann Lockwood
becomes the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.32
Lockwood then won a $5 Million settlement in the U.S. Supreme Court for the Cherokee
Indian Nation to compensate for the theft of their lands.33
1879
The U.S. Supreme Court is compelled to admit Belva Ann Lockwood to its bar, after
rejecting her 1876 application on the grounds of “custom.” Lockwood, who held the
requisite lower court license from the District of Columbia, D.C., obtained Congressional
legislation early in 1879 establishing that women who practice law must have access to
even the highest court.34
1879
After a ten-year running battle with Myra Bradwell backing many well qualified women
candidates, Bradwell was able to announce that twenty-six women had been admitted to
the bar in seven states. However, thirty states still excluded women simply based on their
sex.35
1880
After a decade of one-by-one victories, there were only about 200 women lawyers. The
number of women doctors rose to 2,423 (and 7,000 by 1990).36
1882
Bessie Bradwell, daughter of Myra Bradwell, graduates from the Union College of Law
(later Northwestern University) and continues to publish her mother’s newspaper until
30
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
31
“A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New
Millennium.”
32
"Belva Ann Lockwood." Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
17 Dec. 2010 <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0878411.html>.
33
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
34
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
35
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
36
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
1925. Myra’s husband and son, also a lawyer, continued to manage the printing
company.37
1884
Belva Ann Lockwood leads a revival of the dormant Equal Rights Party as part of her
candidacy for U.S. President – Lockwood wins over 4,000 votes in six states. Indiana
unsuccessfully tries to switch its votes from Grover Cleveland to Lockwood, but is barred
by a technicality.38
1885
Alice Rufie Jordan showed up in the registrar’s office at Yale, armed with a Bachelor of
Science degree from the University of Michigan as well as her Michigan license to
practice law. She paid her fee and it was returned. Jordan kept the money and still
showed up for courses taught by faculty members who agreed to grade her work. Jordan
pointed out an apparent oversight in Yale Law School’s course catalog, which did not
explicitly state women could not enroll.39
1885
Eighteen states permit women to practice law in their courts. (California-1878,
Connecticut-1882, Kansas-1881, Massachusetts-1882, Minnesota-1877, Nebraska-1881,
North Carolina-1878, Pennsylvania-1883, and Washington-1885)40
1886
The Equity Club is founded at the University of Michigan by Lettie Burlingame for
women law students and law alumnae, later expanding to include women attorneys from
other schools. It is the first professional organization for women lawyers, and circulates
its newsletters to members nationwide. Burlingame, a suffragist, goes into private
practice and “so successful was she that she won every case entrusted to her” prior to her
death from “la grippe” in 1890.41
1890
The Women’s Legal Education Society opens its doors in a building in Greenwich
Village, offering adult education classes for a fee of five dollars a year. Women studied
the rudiments of law and at the end of each year, examinations were held and women
were given certificates of completion at graduation ceremonies. The curriculum began to
be regarded as a pre-law curriculum. That same year, the University of New York Law
School began admitting women. The Women’s Legal Education Society raised money
for scholarships to the law school.42
37
American National Biography Online. Myra Bradwell. http://www.anb.org/articles/11/11-00095.html (Accessed
March 14, 2011). 38
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
39
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
40
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
41
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
42
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
1890
Bradwell is finally licensed in 1890 when the state supreme court, on its own motion,
reconsiders her 1869 application and grants the license nunc pro tunc, backdating its
effect to the original date.43
1892
Bradwell is granted the right to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court.44
1892
Feminist economist Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishes the novella The Yellow WallPaper, a horrifying depiction of how the medical and legal systems worked together to
institutionalize or otherwise isolate ambitious women simply by spousal fiat. Such
women were often treated for “mental exhaustion” by being deprived of any
“unwomanly” intellectual stimulation whatsoever, including basic writing materials or
the right to hear news or speak to friends.45
1893
The queen Isabella Association is formed by women to promote women’s
accomplishments at the World’s Fair in Chicago. They select their name to reflect that
Europeans would not have settled American without Isabella’s sponsorship of Columbus.
As part of the Fair, its legal committee organizes the first nationwide meeting of women
lawyers.46
1893
Belva Lockwood, grudgingly admitted to the Supreme Court bar in 1879, is denied the
right to join the state bar of Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court, relying on the 1873
Bradwell decision, reaffirms that state bars may discriminate on the basis of sex.47
1894
Bradwell, mortally ill with cancer, dies in 1894.48
1895
Four out of five law schools were still refusing to allow women to study, no matter what
their qualifications.49
1895
Twenty-nine states now allow women to practice law in their courts. (Colorado-1891,
Hawaii-1888, Idaho-1895, Montana-1890, Nevada-1893, New Hampshire-1890, New
Jersey-1895, New York-1886, Oregon-1886, South Dakota-1893, and Virginia-1894).50
43
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
44
American National Biography Online. Myra Bradwell. http://www.anb.org/articles/11/11-00095.html (Accessed
March 14, 2011). 45
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
46
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
47
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011). 48
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
49
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
50
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
1896
Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett create the first women’s school of law,
Washington College of Law (now American University). Mussey was named the only
women dean of a law school in the world. In the spring of 1899, six women received
their law degrees.51
1897
Lutie A. Lytle, an African-American attorney, becomes the first woman law professor in
the nation when she joins the faculty of the Central Tennessee College of Law (now
Walden University – a historically black college).52
1899
The first of its kind, the Women Lawyer’s Club53 (which became known as the National
Association of Women Lawyers) is founded.54
1900
Only five women had been appointed or elected to even minor judicial roles.55
1905
Women are admitted to thirty-seven state bars. (Arizona-1903, Florida-1898, Louisiana1898, Maryland-1902, North Dakota-1905, Oklahoma-1898, West Virginia-1896, and
Wyoming-1899).56
1908
Portia Law School, the only all-women’s law school in the world, opened in Boston.57
1910
Lyda Burton Conley became the first Native American woman lawyer in the United
States. She never dreamed of becoming a lawyer but did so by self educating herself in
order to protect her tribe’s cemetery burial land (Huron Park Indian Cemetery) from
being sold. Though she lost her case and the U.S. Supreme Court denied rehearing, her
efforts drew so much support and attention that in 1912 the House of Representatives
Indian Affairs committee banned desecration of the cemetery.58
1910
With the population exploding, there were only 559 women lawyers, less than 1 percent
of the vastly expanded legal profession.59
1915
Women are admitted to forty-three state bars. (Alabama-1907, Kentucky-1912,
Mississippi-1914, Tennessee-1907, Texas-1910, and Vermont-1914)60
51
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
52
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
53
Doing Justice, Doing Gender, p. 153.
54
http://www.abanet.org/nawl/about/history.html
55
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
56
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
57
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
58
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
59
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
1918
Only one black woman lawyer, Gertrude E. Rush, was known to exist.61
1918
Though previously excluded, women are finally allowed membership in the American
Bar Association.62 (It is important to note that women had previously been allowed
membership in local and state bar associations prior to 1918).
1919
Barbara Armstrong becomes the first woman appointed to a tenure-track position at an
accredited law school when she joins the staff of the University of California at
Berkeley.63
1919
Matilda Fenberg became the first woman law student at Yale.64
1919
Frances Allen (who would later be the first woman to hold an Article III Appellate
Judgeship)became the first woman to work as an assistant prosecutor.65
1920
Just fifteen women had been appointed or elected to even minor judicial roles.66
1920
Women gain the right to vote yet the newly enfranchised “second sex” were barred from
twenty-seven law schools, including Columbia and the most resistant of all, Harvard.67
1920
In response to the enactment of the 19th Amendment, Florence Ellinwood Allen decides
to run for judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Cleveland. Beating to nine male
opponents for the job and earning more votes than the three male judges who were also
elected, Allen wins the judgeship by the largest popular vote ever for the bench in that
country. She is the first female to win a popular election for judge. Six years later she is
reelected with a majority 350,000 votes.68
1922
Florence Ellinwood Allen is popularly elected to the Ohio Supreme Court.69 She is the
first woman elected to any state’s Supreme Court.70
60
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
62
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 109.
63
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
64
http://www.abanet.org/nawl/about/history.html
65
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader and Brill, Laura W. Women in the Federal Judiciary: Three Way Pavers and the
Exhilarating Change President Carter Wrought. Fordham Law Review, November 1995.
66
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
67
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
68
Florence Ellinwood Allen: Why the First Lady of the Law Chose Deborah Over Portia.
http://www.law.stanford.edu/library/womenslegalhistory/papers/AllenFE-Liou07.pdf
69
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
61
1922
24 year old Pauline Floyd becomes the youngest lawyer ever admitted to practice before
the United States Court.71
1923
Six additional states opened its courts to women practitioners: Arkansas-1918, Delaware1923, Georgia-1916, New Mexico-1917, Rhode Island-1920, and South Carolina-1918.
The final state to permit women admission to it’s Bar was Alaska, which did not do so
until 1950.72
1925
For a brief time, three women made up the Texas State Supreme Court. One of the
parties in a famous land dispute, Johnson v. Darr, was the popular organization,
“Woodmen of the World.” Three judges had to disqualify themselves because they
belonged to the organization and the governor of Texas appointed three women to replace
them. However, after the case ended, not a single woman was appointed to a judgeship
in Texas until 1934.73
1928
Columbia Law School opened its doors to women for the first time.74
1928
Genevieve Rose Cline of Ohio becomes the first woman to be a federal judge when she is
appointed to the U.S. Customs Court, where she goes on to serve for 25 years.75
1934
President Roosevelt appoints Florence Ellinwood Allen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Sixth Circuit, making her the first woman on the federal appellate bench.76 She
served for a quarter of a century, becoming by virtue of seniority the Circuit’s Chief
Judge in her very last year on the court (during the 1958-1959 term).77
1944
Justice William O. Douglas hired Lucille Lomen, making her the first female to clerk for
a U.S. Supreme Court justice.78 It would be another 22 years before a second female clerk
was hired.
70
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
71
Washington College of Law “Interesting Facts.” http://www.wcl.american.edu/history/facts.cfm. Accessed April
22, 2011. 72
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
73
Garza, Hedda. Barred from the Bar: A History of Women and the Legal Profession. New York: Franklin Watts,
1996.
74
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 110
75
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
76
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
77
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader and Brill, Laura W. Women in the Federal Judiciary: Three Way Pavers and the
Exhilarating Change President Carter Wrought. Fordham Law Review, November 1995. 78
Sarver, Tammy A., Erin B. Kaheny, and John J. Szmer. "The Attorney Gender Gap in U.S. Supreme Court
Litigation." Judicature 91, no. 5 (March-April 2008): 238-20.
1949
Burnita Shelton Matthews becomes the first woman on the federal trial bench when
President Harry S. Truman appoints her as district court judge79for the U.S. District of
Columbia; the Senate confirms her nomination in April 1950.80
1950
Alaska becomes the final state to allow women to be admitted to its State Bar.81
1950
Harvard Law School opens its doors to women for the first time.82
1969
The first Women and the Law courses in the country are taught at NYU Law School in
the fall and Yale the following spring. Georgetown Law’s first Women and the Law
class is taught by Barbara Allen Babcock in 1970. George Washington University’s
National Law Center initiates its Women and the Law class in the Fall of 1970,
simultaneous with Georgetown, taught by Gladys Kessler and Susan Deller Ross. In
1971, Eleanor Holmes Norton teaches the course at NYU, and Ann E. Freedman joins
Babcock in teaching the course at Georgetown. In 1972, Judy Lyons Wolf and Nancy
Stanley teach it at George Washington University, and in 1973, Marna Tucker and
Brooksley Born do so at Georgetown.83
1970
The Women’s Rights Law Reporter, a journal of legal scholarship published by an
independent student group at Rutgers School of Law – Newark is founded by Ruth Bader
Ginsburg. The journal is the first legal periodical in the United States to focus
exclusively on the field of women’s rights law.84 Now as the oldest legal periodical, it
focuses on legislative developments, significant federal and state court cases, judicial
doctrines, litigation strategies, the lives and careers of prominent women jurists, the legal
profession, and other areas of law or public policy relating to women’s rights.
1971
The Women’s Legal Defense Fund is founded to advance women’s rights, initially
litigating through a network of volunteer lawyers. With a grant from the Junior League
of Washington to fund paid staff, Judith L. Lichtman becomes the first executive director
in 1974.85
79
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
80
Federal Judicial Center. History of the Federal Judiciary/Biographical Directory of Federal Judges: Burnita
Shelton Matthews. http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=1506&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na. (Accessed
March 14, 2011).
81
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
82
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 110. 83
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
84
Rutgers Law School. Women’s Rights Law Reporter. http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~wrlr/index.html. (Accessed
March 14, 2011).
85
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
1972
The Women’s Rights Project of the Center for Law and Social Policy is established under
the direction of Marcia D. Greenberger. Its mission is to provide legal representation on
women’s issues in the courts, in Congress, and through public education.86
1972
Title IX of the Higher Education Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in the
enrollment of students and hiring of faculty. Law schools feared the denial of federal
financial assistance if they continued to discriminate and law schools began to admit
more women to their classes.87
1974
Sex-Based Discrimination, coauthored by Kenneth M. Davidson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
and Herma Hill Kaye, is published as the first law school casebook addressing the topic.88
1974
Women’s representation among American law students is a low 20%.89
1975
Sex Discrimination and the Law, coauthored by Barbara Allen Babcock, Ann E.
Freedman, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Susan Deller Ross, is published, providing a
second casebook on the subject. The book evolved from materials the authors used for
the first Women and the Law classes at Georgetown, George Washington University, and
Yale.90
1977
Only eight women have served in the federal judiciary at the District or Circuit Court
Level91
1978
Wendy Webster Williams authors a comprehensive 1978 Supplement to Sex
Discrimination and the Law textbook to augment and update the earlier work.92
1979
Women now serve at some level of the judicial system in all 50 states.93
1980
After lobbying by women students for a clinic focused on women’s rights, the
Georgetown University Law Center begins its Employment Discrimination Clinic. The
86
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
87
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 110.
88
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
89
Bashi, Sari and Maryana Iskander. "Why Legal Education is Failing Women." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism
(2006): 389-449.
90
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
91
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 111.
92
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
93
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.,
2007. P. 111.
clinic’s initial caseload is comprised of federal agency employment discrimination
hearings. In 1982, it is renamed the Sex Discrimination Clinic.94
1981
Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed by President Reagan to the United States Supreme
Court, making her the first woman justice to serve on the highest court of the land.95
1981
The Women’s Rights Project of the Center for Law and Social Policy becomes the
National Women’s Law Center.96 The center’s mission is to protect and advance the
progress of women and girls. Among many issues, the Center is dedicated to ensuring
individuals nominated to lifetime positions on the federal bench support the rights and
principles that are fundamental to women’s progress97
1984
The Washington College of Law (now known as American University Washington
College of Law) launches the Women and the Law Program which trains its students to
use their law degrees to defend women’s rights. It is the only program of its kind in the
world.98
1985
Women comprise 40% of American law students.99
1987
The ABA created the Commission on Women in the Profession chaired by Hillary
Rodham Clinton to address gender discrimination throughout the legal profession.100
1989
Judith Areen becomes Dean of the Georgetown Law Center, the first female Dean in its
history and one of only a handful of women law school deans in the nation.101
1993
A woman attorney moves into the White House – as First Lady, when Hillary Rodham
Clinton moves to Washington at President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration.102
1993
Janet Reno becomes the first woman U.S. Attorney General.103
94
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
95
"Sandra Day O'Connor." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
© 1994, 2000-2006, on Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
17 Dec. 2010 <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0836351.html>.
96
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
97
National Women’s Law Center. Judges and the Courts – Judicial Nominations. http://www.nwlc.org/ourissues/judges-%2526-the-courts/judicial-nominations. (Accessed March 14, 2011).
98
Washington College of Law. Rich in History. http://www.wcl.american.edu/history/timeline.cfm (Accessed
March 14, 2011).
99
Bashi, Sari and Maryana Iskander. "Why Legal Education is Failing Women." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism
(2006): 389-449.
100
Ehrlich Martin, Susan and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications,
Inc., 2007. P. 118.
101
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
102
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
1993
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated by President Bill Clinton, becomes the second woman
appointed to the Supreme Court.104
1993
The Georgetown Law Center opens its day care center 23 years after its women law
students first requested this much needed facility for children of staff and students.105
1994
Just 23% of all lawyers in the United States are women (12.9% of partners in major law
firms are women; 4% of general counsels in Fortune 500 companies are women). 45% of
law students are women. 5.9% of tenured positions at law schools are held by women.
13% of U.S. Court of Appeals Judges are Women; 12% of U.S. District Court judges are
women.106
1995
The American Bar Association, after 117 years, inaugurates its first woman president,
Roberta Cooper Ramo.107
1998
The Women’s Legal Defense Fund becomes the National Partnership for Women &
Families, reflecting a new priority on consumer education, quality health care, and
workplace issues affecting women.108
1998
The Center for Legal Advocacy for Women’s Rights is established at Georgetown
University Law Center. The components are a domestic violence clinic, a clinic on
international women’s human rights, the domestic Women’s Law and Public Policy
Fellowship Program and the international Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa
Program.109
1999
Women comprise just 32% of all law school faculty.110
2000
Full-time women lawyers earn 73% of what their male counterparts earn.111
103
"Janet Reno." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
© 1994, 2000-2006, on Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
17 Dec. 2010 <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0841536.html>.
104
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
105
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
106
“Charting our Progress: The Status of Women in the Profession Today.” American Bar Association. The
Commission on Women in the Profession 2006 Report.
107
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
108
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
109
Cunnea, Professor. "A Timeline of Women's Legal History in the United States." 1998. http://wlhstatic.law.stanford.edu/articles/cunnea-timeline.pdf (accessed March 7, 2011).
110
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
111
“Charting our Progress: The Status of Women in the Profession Today.” American Bar Association. The
Commission on Women in the Profession 2006 Report.
2000
13% of female attorneys (and 8% of male attorneys) work in federal, state and local
government positions, as well as in Legal Aid and the public defender’s office.112
2001
For the first time in the history of the legal profession, American law schools admitted a
J.D. class that was roughly equally divided between men and women (52 and 48%
respectively).113
2001
Just 22% of federal district and appellate judgeships were filled by women (130 of 606
United States District Court positions and 36 of 154 United States Courts of Appeals’
positions).114
2002
29.1% of all lawyers in the United States are women (16.3% of partners in major law
firms are women; 15% of general counsels in Fortune 500 companies are women). 50%
of law students are women. 25.1% of tenured positions at law schools are held by
women. 17.4% of U.S. Court of Appeals Judges are Women; 16.2% of U.S. District
Court judges are women.115
2003
Full-time women lawyers earn 76% of what their male colleagues earn.116
2005
Harriet Miers becomes the first woman to hold the office of White House Counsel. Miers
is no stranger to firsts; she was the first female president of the Dallas Bar Association
and of the Texas Bar Association.117
2006
Columbia Law School’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic is the first law school clinic
anywhere in the U.S. directed by a full-time law school faculty member and dedicated to
legal and public policy issues related to gender and sexuality.118
2009
President Obama appoints Elena Kagan to serve as the first female Solicitor General of
the U.S.119
2009
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is nominated in May by President Obama to the United States
Supreme Court and confirmed by the Senate in August.120 She is the first Latina to serve
112
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
Bashi, Sari and Maryana Iskander. "Why Legal Education is Failing Women." Yale Journal of Law and
Feminism (2006): 389-449. And http://www.abanet.org/women/glance.pdf.
114
A Shifting Gender Divide: The Impact of Gender on Education at Columbia Law School in the New Millennium.
115
“Charting our Progress: The Status of Women in the Profession Today.” American Bar Association. The
Commission on Women in the Profession 2006 Report.
116
“Charting our Progress: The Status of Women in the Profession Today.” American Bar Association. The
Commission on Women in the Profession 2006 Report.
117
“Who is Harriet Miers?” ABC News. October 7, 2005
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/SupremeCourt/story?id=1170572&page=1 (accessed June 20, 2011).
118
Columbia Law School. Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic.
http://www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/gendersexuality/clinic. (Accessed March 14, 2011).
119
NBC News. Obama names first woman solicitor general. January 5, 2009.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/01/05/4434106-obama-names-first-woman-solicitor-gen. (Accessed
March 14, 2011).
113
on the highest court of the land and joins Ruth Bader Ginsburg in again having a ratio of
2 women serving.121
2010
Justice Elena Kagan is nominated in May by President Obama to the United States
Supreme Court122 and confirmed by the Senate in August.123 Her appointment to the
bench marks the first time in U.S. History that three women serve on the United States
Supreme Court at the same time.
2011
Christine Luchok Fallon becomes the 16th and the first woman to serve as the Reporter of
Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.124
120
CNN.com. Senate Confirms Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court. August 6, 2009. http://articles.cnn.com/200908-06/politics/sonia.sotomayor_1_judge-sotomayor-hispanic-supreme-court-third-femalejustice?_s=PM:POLITICS. (Accessed March 14, 2011).
121
The White House Office of the Press Secretary. Remarks by the President in Nominating Judge Sonia Sotomayor
to the United States Supreme Court. May 26, 2009. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-thePresident-in-Nominating-Judge-Sonia-Sotomayor-to-the-United-States-Supreme-Court/ (Accessed March 14, 2011).
122
MSNBC. Obama Picks Kagan for Supreme Court. May 10, 2010.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36967616/ns/politics-supreme_court/. (Accessed March 14, 2011).
123
Foxnews.com. Obama Hails Elena Kagan’s Confirmation as Newest Supreme Court Justice. August 5, 2010.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/05/senate-confirms-elena-kagan-newest-supreme-court-justice/
(Accessed March 14, 2011). 124
U.S. Supreme Court Press Release, March 7, 2011.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/viewpressreleases.aspx?FileName=pr_03-07-11.html. Accessed
April 20, 2011.