Women in The United States Judiciary - Breaking Into The Field of Law

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.