Myra Bradwell, one of the first female lawyers in the United States, 1870. She applied to the Illino
Myra Bradwell, one of the first female lawyers in the United States, 1870. She applied to the Illinois Bar in the late 1860s, and was denied because the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that because state law made it impossible for a woman to enter into legal agreements without their husbands’ permission, she would not be able to independently represent clients. Furthermore, the Chief Justice of the court said that “God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action.” She took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost, with the Court ruling that “the paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother.“ Bradwell finally received permission to practice law in 1892. -- source link
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