Cool Chicks from History

obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: Illinois’ 1st Female Chief Justice

Mary Ann McMorrow lived a life of firsts. She was the first woman to graduate from the Loyola University (Chicago) School of Law in 1953 - where she was elected class president. She was the first Cook County State’s Attorney to try felony cases - although her supervisor wouldn’t let her argue before the Illinois Supreme Court because of her gender. She was the first woman elected to the Cook County Circuit Court bench in 1976. Ten years later she was the first woman chosen by voters as a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court.

And she only continued to succeed.  In 1992 she won election to the Illinois State Supreme Court., the first woman to earn a seat on Illinois’ highest judicial body.  A decade later she would become the head of the Illinois judiciary when she won the 2002 election for Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice - the first woman to lead any branch of Illinois government.

When Mrs. McMorrow was sworn in as Chief Justice she said, “I am the 115th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. You will notice after I take off my robe that I am the only one of the 114 chief justices who preceded me that wears a skirt.” 

Mary Ann McMorrow died on Saturday, February 23 at the age of 83.

Sources: Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, and The Daily Herald

(Undated image of Judge Mary Ann Morrow is copyright of Sally Good/Chicago Tribune)

Image source

Today is the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the case which legalized abortion nationwide.

Caroline “Carrie” Burnham Kilgore (1838-1909)

Orphaned at age 12, Carrie supported herself through domestic work and teaching, eventually earning both a medical degree (1865) and a law degree (1883).  Carrie first applied to study law at the University of Pennsylvania in 1871 but it took ten years of lobbying for the program to admit her as the first female student.  Bit by bit she fought for the right to practice law.  Carrie was admitted to the Pennsylvania state courts in 1885, joined the Pennsylvania Bar in 1886, and  was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1890.  A suffragette, she also represented the Citizen’s Suffrage Association of Philadelphia at the conventions of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

nypl:

NYPL’s Hunts Point Library received a surprise visit today from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor! Justice Sotomayor was visiting her hometown and decided to pay a visit to her old library stomping grounds in the Bronx. The staff from the Library, along with one of our patrons, were pleased to welcome her back to the branch!

Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s first female elected attorney general and first Democrat elected attorney general.  

“We expanded the boundaries for women in Pennsylvania.  We have expanded the boundaries for your daughters.”

Hat tip to and I am the Fox

Time Magazine cover from June 8, 2009, two months before Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation as the first Hispanic US Supreme Court Justice.  

Clara Gonzalez (1900-1990) was the first woman in Panama to receive a law degree.  While she was a student, Clara wrote one of the first papers on women’s legal rights in Panama (La mujer ante el derecho panameño).  Clara completed law school in 1922 but she could not begin practicing as a lawyer until 1924 when the Panamanian Legislative Assembly passed Law 55 giving women the right to practice law.

Clara was a founding member of Partido Nacional Feminista (National Feminist Party) and la Escuela de Cultura Femenina (School of Feminine Culture), two organizations that worked to empower women.  One of the objections to women’s suffrage was that women were not educated enough to vote and the civics classes provided by the school were designed to counteract that opinion.  In 1941, Panamanian women obtained the right to vote.  

Clara’s law career had focused on the rights of children as well as women and in 1951 she was appointed the first juvenile court judge in Panama.  

swintons:

Cornelia Sorabji (15 November 1866 - 6 July 1954)

Though Indian (Parsi) and a woman, Cornelia Sorabji accomplished the unimaginable in becoming the first woman to practice law in India and Britain. Sorabji was born into a large family of nine children, her father, Reverend Sorabji Karsedji, a Parsi Christian, and her mother, Francina Ford, an Indian who had been adopted and raised by a British couple. Sorabji’s mother was devoted to the cause of women’s education, and made her mark upon Indian society with the establishment of several girls’ schools in Puna (then known as Poona). It was through her mother’s contacts that opened the door for Sorabji to become the first woman to take the Bachelor of Civil Laws exam at Oxford University in 1892.

Upon her return to India in 1894, Sorabji dedicated her time to the rights and education of women and children. Her first cases involved the women of the purdahnashins. Many of these women held considerable property, but Hindu law forbade them from communicating with the outside male world. Sorabji could enter pleas for these women in the courts, but she could not defend the cases because she lacked professional standing in the Indian legal system. She quickly rectified this, standing for the LLB examination of Bombay University in 1897 and pleader’s examination of Allahabad high court in 1899. Despite her success in these examinations, she would not be recognized as a barrister until women were legally permitted to be called to the bar in 1924.

In the meantime, Sorabji petitioned the India Office for legal advisers to women and minors in the provincial courts, and was appointed Lady Assistant to the Court of Wards of Bengal in 1904. By 1907, the need for such representation called her to all parts of India, and over a twenty year period, it was estimated that Sorabji helped over 600 women and orphans fight legal battles, sometimes at no charge. In the 1920s, she was legally able to practice law and opened a firm in Calcutta; however, male prejudice confined her to the preparation of cases, and she never set foot in a court as a barrister. Nevertheless, Sorabji–a woman, an Indian, and a Christian–led an interesting and intriguing life, “which spanned two extremes of the Raj: its zenith under a queen who ruled over a quarter of the world’s population, and its ultimate dissolution with India’s independence.”  [x]

(Source: mizoguchi)

ourpresidents:

On September 25, 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to be sworn in as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

President Reagan had nominated O’Connor earlier that summer, and he wrote in his White House diary, “Called Judge O’Connor in  Ariz. and told her she was my nominee for Supreme Ct. Already the flack is starting and from my own supporters… I think she’ll make a good Justice.”

O’Connor helped inspire a generation of women to pursue careers in law—when she was appointed,  thirty-six percent of law school students were women; by the time she retired from the court in 2006 that percentage had risen to forty-eight percent.

Last year, O’Connor spoke to a group of high school students at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley and told them:

“It was exciting to be the first, but I did not want to be the last.”

Photo: Sandra Day O’Connor being sworn in as Supreme Court Justice by Chief Justice Warren Burger.  Her husband, John O’Connor looks on.  9/25/81.

More from the Center for Legislative Archives

congressarchives:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated as an Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton on June 22, 1993. The Senate confirmed Ginsburg’s nomination on August 3 by a vote of 96-3. She was sworn in on August 10.

Nomination message from President William Clinton, 6/22/1993, Records of the U.S. Senate

Ruth Bader Gingsburg was the second woman appointed the the US Supreme Court.  The current makeup of the Supreme Court is 3 women and 6 men.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the oldest justice at age 79.  

(via ourpresidents)

questionableadvice:

~ The Chicago Blue Book, 1908
via Internet Archive

A female private detective in 1908? Miss Cora M. Strayer, I lift my glass to you. I’ll bet you were an interesting person to know.

Note: Apparently Mr. Geo. S. Holben, Supt. Criminal Dept., was shot by a disgruntled former employee in 1910. (Los Angeles Herald, December 06, 1910).

According to the 1913 edition of the Chicago Blue Book, Miss. Strayer’s Detective Agency was still in business, although Mr. Holben’s name no longer appeared in the advertisement.

Someone has put together a timeline of Cora’s life, from her birth in Indiana to her creation of a woman’s cavalry unit to her golden years as a lady detective.

Carmen Aguinaldo, circa 1918-1920

The daughter of Emilio Aguinaldo, the first president of the Philippines, Carmen studied at the University of Illinois.  In the US, she met Jose Melencio, one time director of the Philippine Press Bureau in Washiington, DC.  Together they had a daughter named Ameurfina who grew up to be the second woman appointed to the Philippine Supreme Court. 

Marie Bottineau Baldwin (1863-1952) was a Chippewa attorney.  Marie was the first Native American student and first woman of color to graduate from the Washington College of Law. Today the Women’s Law Association at her alma mater funds a scholarship in her name.  

Following law school, Marie worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and was treasurer the Society of American Indians.