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67 A.B.A. J. 578 (1981)
Women in the Legal Profession: A Progress Report

handle is hein.journals/abaj67 and id is 578 raw text is: By Donna Fossum JUST over one hundred years ago the first woman was admitted to the prac- tice of law in the United States. The admission of Belle Mansfield to the bar of Iowa in 1869 marked the beginning of what has proved to be a long struggle by women to become full members of the American legal profession. It was many years before all states fol- lowed the example of Iowa. Less than one year after Mansfield's admission to Iowa's bar, Myra Bradwell was refused admission to the bar of the neighboring state of Illinois solely on sex grounds. When Bradwell appealed, to the United States Supreme Court, the justices agreed that women were not suited for the practice of law. In the years that fol- lowed, other women, strictly because of their sex, were refused admission to the bars of such states as Massachusetts, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Not until the turn of the century were women per- mitted to practice law in most states. When -women first appeared among the ranks of the nation's -lawyers, the primary method of preparing for ad- mission to the bar was apprenticing in law offices. For women, this often meant working in the law offices of egalitarian-minded spouses. Toward the end of the century, studying in law schools was fast replacing apprenticing as the preferred method of preparing for the bar. At that time a number of law schools admitted women students-in- deed, the first woman to be graduated Women in Professio A Progres .Report the Legal

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