Unit D - Blog #38

Myra Bradwell effected the very beginnings of women as lawyers. She discussed and studied law with her husband in 1869 and passed the Chicago Bar Exam later that year. She applied for a license but was denied. She took it to the Supreme Court of Illinois where they upheld the decisions saying, "The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many occupations of civil life....The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign office of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator." [83 U.S. 130 at 141]. She appealed and they overruled this decision making her one of only five women lawyers in the U.S. in the 1970 census. She started The Chicago Legal News which did really well. This kind of a woman broke all conventional rules especially for the era she lived in. By overturning the ridiculous first ruling, women were able to break free from the sanctity of marriage confining a woman to only feminine roles. While it did not end the ideas and practices of women carrying out only womanly roles, it was a major step in setting precedence for future rule breaking women to come.