WOMAN IN THE PROFESSION OF THE LAW.
When in the year of our Lord 1869 American papers reported that in Iowa a woman had been admitted to the bar, most readers were inclined to regard this "bit of news" as one of the many jokes, sprung occasionally upon credulous people in order to warn them what the "new woman" might be able to do. But in this case the "joke" turned out to be a fact. And if people had been somewhat better acquainted with their Bibles, they would have known that the woman lawyer of Iowa was only another confirmation of Rabbi Ben Akiba's famous saying: "There is nothing new under the sun!"
Open your Bible and read in Chapter 4 of the Judges IV about Deborah, the Joan of Arc of the Hebrews. Of this most extraordinary woman recorded in Jewish history it is stated that she was a prophetess as well as a judge, "to whom the children of Israel came for judgment."
The Greeks and Romans too had female lawyers. From writers of the classic past we know that Aspasia pleaded causes in the Athenian forum, and Amenia Sentia and Hortensia in the Roman forum. And Valerius Maximus (Hist. lib. VIII, Chapter 3) states that the right of Roman women to follow the profession of advocate was taken away in consequence of the obnoxious conduct of Caliphurnia, who, from "excess of boldness" and "by reason of making the tribunals resound with howlings uncommon in the forum," was forbidden to plead. The law, made to meet the especial case of Caliphurnia, ultimately "under the influence of the anti-feministic tendencies" of the period, was converted into a general one. In its wording the law sets forth that the original reason for woman's exclusion "rested solely on the doings of said person."
The "howlings of Caliphurnia" furnished the legislators of all later periods with a welcome pretext to exclude women from practice of the law, and it was not till 1869 that a woman again obtained admission to the bar. This pioneer was Miss Arabella A. Mansfield of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, who was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1869, under the statute providing only for admission of "white male citizens."
The next female lawyer was Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood, a graduate of the Law School of the National University at Washington, D. C. Having been admitted in 1873 to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, she applied in October, 1876, for admission as practitioner of the Supreme Court of the United States, but was rejected under the following decision: "By the uniform practice of the Court from its organization to the present time, and by the fair construction of its rules, none but men are admitted to practice before it as attorneys and counselors. This is in
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