The following is a guest post by Grace Hogan, an intern with the Digital Resources Division of the Law Library of Congress and undergraduate student at George Washington University.
On June 15, 1869, in the town of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Arabella “Belle” Mansfield took the bar examination for the state of Iowa and became the first woman admitted to the bar in the United States. Despite a long history of women being placed into a more supportive role to their husbands and families and resistance to women in the legal world (including juries), Belle paved the road for future women to break into the legal profession.
Arabella Aurelia Babb was born on a farm in Iowa in 1846. She graduated from Iowa Wesleyan University in 1866 as valedictorian with her brother, Washington, as salutatorian. After her graduation in 1866, she became a professor of English, history, and political science at Simpson College for one year. Then she served as an apprentice for her brother’s law firm and studied law. Encouraged by her brother and new husband, John Mansfield, an Iowa Wesleyan graduate and professor, she continued her studies and felt prepared to take the bar exam in 1869.
Read more
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2024/01/arabella-mansfield-first-female-lawyer/?loclr=eaiclb
