Arabella Mansfield became the first female lawyer in the United States when she was admitted to the bar in 1869. She took the bar exam when only men were legally allowed to take the test, and won a court case for her right to practice law.
Early Life of Arabella Mansfield
Born Belle Aurelia Babb in 1846, Arabella grew up on a farm in Burlington, Iowa.
Arabella began attending Iowa Wesleyan College in 1862, where they had just recently begun accepting female students because so many men had left to fight in the Civil War. There she started going by the name Arabella, and graduated as valedictorian in just three years. She met her husband John Melvin Mansfield while attending college, and they both worked as college professors after graduating.
Becoming a Lawyer
Arabella was interested in studying law, but hesitant to do so because of societal attitudes towards women at the time. Only men 21 and older were permitted to take the bar exam, so there was no point, she thought, in studying law.
Arabella’s husband encouraged her in her ambitions, and she decided to challenge the restrictions on women. She started working as an apprentice for her brother, who was a lawyer.
What year was the first woman lawyer?
In 1869, Arabella Mansfield took the bar exam even though it was illegal, and passed with very high scores.
Arabella then took the state of Iowa to court to fight for her right to practice law. The court ruled in her favor, and Iowa became the very first state in the US to admit women to practice law.
Professor and Activist
Though she was now technically a lawyer, Arabella decided to continue teaching college and doing activist work instead of practicing law. She taught at Iowa Wesleyan College, and then transferred to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
Arabella was also an active suffragist, and joined the National League of Women Lawyers in 1893. She worked together with Susan B. Anthony at the Iowa Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1870.
Arabella died in 1911 at the age of 65, before the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 which granted women the right to vote.
Other Notable Female Lawyers
Myra Bradwell (1831-1894) tried to get admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1872, going to the Illinois Supreme Court to argue her case. Even though she had completed her studies and passed the bar, she was not allowed to practice law. The court wrote that “The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life.” It wasn’t until 1890 that she was granted a license to practice law.
Gertrude Rush became the first African American woman to become a lawyer in Iowa in 1918. She remained the only black female lawyer in Iowa up until 1950. After being denied admission to the American Bar Association, she helped to found the Negro Bar Association in 1925 with other black lawyers. She was also an activist who fought for women’s suffrage and civil rights for African Americans.
Keri is a blogger and digital marketing professional who founded Amazing Women In History in 2011.
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