Jill Norgren’s Rebels at the Bar: The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America’s First Women Lawyers was recently added to the library’s “new book shelf.”
Spanning the mid to late 19th-century, the book details the life and times of eight pioneering women who were some of the first female lawyers in the U.S. It explores their common struggles and the courage and determination it took for them to succeed in a profession that was shut off to them.
Some of the women whose stories are recounted are:
- Mary Hall – the first woman admitted to the Connecticut bar, and whose license led to the first decision in the U.S. permitting a woman to practice law
- Belva Lockwood, the first woman attorney licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court
- Clara Foltz, the first woman licensed to practice law in California
For more, read a review or an excerpt, or watch the author talk about her book.
