Breaking Into The Field of Law
The entry of women into the legal profession was continuously thwarted by the general impression that women were unfit (both too tender and not intelligent enough) to practice law. In 1875, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied Lavinia Goodell admission to the state bar on the grounds that "ature has tempered woman as little for the juridical conflicts of the court room, as for the physical conflicts of the battle field. Womanhood is moulded for gentler and better things."
In 1872, the United States Supreme Court affirmed a decision from the Supreme Court of Illinois that denied Myra Bradwell admission to the state bar. The state Supreme Court had reasoned that because state law invalidated any contract entered into by a married woman without the consent of her husband, women (most of whom would be married) could not adequately represent her clients. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, noting that even though some women might not actually be married, such women were the rare exceptions. The U.S. Supreme Court noted:
- "The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator. And the rules of civil society must be adapted to the general constitution of things, and cannot be based upon exceptional cases." Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. 130, 141-42 (1873).
Slowly, courts came to accept women in the role of legal practitioner. In 1873, Belva Lockwood was admitted to the Washington, D.C. bar only after a yearlong battle. In 1878, Clara Shortridge Foltz became the first woman to be admitted to practice law in the State of California. To do so, she had to lobby the state legislature to remove the gender restriction in the law. Nonetheless, after her legislative success, she was still denied admission to the state's Hastings College of law on the grounds that women would "distract the attention of the male students." Ms. Foltz only gained admission to the state school after arguing her case to the California Supreme Court, which garnered her what was then considered high praise from one of the seated justices: "You are not only a good mother; you are a good lawyer."
In Washington D.C., Belva Lockwood lobbied Congress on three separate occasions to change the U.S. Supreme Court admissions rules to allow a woman to argue before the court. Her efforts succeeded. Lockwood was sworn in as the first woman member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar on March 3, 1879. Late in 1880, she became the first woman lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read more about this topic: Women In The United States Judiciary
Famous quotes containing the words breaking, field and/or law:
“With their ever breaking newness
And their courage to be new.”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“The woman ... turned her melancholy tone into a scolding one. She was not very young, and the wrinkles in her face were filled with drops of water which had fallen from her eyes, which, with the yellowness of her complexion, made a figure not unlike a field in the decline of the year, when the harvest is gathered in and a smart shower of rain has filled the furrows with water. Her voice was so shrill that they all jumped into the coach as fast as they could and drove from the door.”
—Sarah Fielding (17101768)
“Without doubt God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it.... He directs angels, man, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things, but each according to its nature, and man having been created free, he is freely led. This rule is truly the eternal law and in it we must believe.”
—Joseph De Maistre (17531821)