Who was the first female lawyer who worked for equal rights?
Asked by: Trey Moen | Last update: January 21, 2026Score: 4.4/5 (51 votes)
Belva Ann Lockwood (born Oct. 24, 1830, Royalton, N.Y., U.S.—died May 19, 1917, Washington, D.C.) was an American feminist and lawyer who was the first woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Who was the female lawyer who worked for equal rights?
Crystal Eastman, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, struggled throughout her life for equal rights and civil liberties for all. Acquiring her law degree from New York University in 1907, Eastman was one of only a few hundred women lawyers in the early twentieth century.
Who was the first ever female lawyer?
19th century. 1869 – Arabella Mansfield became the first female lawyer in the United States when she was admitted to the Iowa bar.
What is Belva Lockwood known for?
She spent five years energetically lobbying a bill through Congress, and in 1879 Belva Lockwood became the first woman to practice law before the US Supreme Court. In 1884 she accepted the nomination of the National Equal Rights Party and ran for president.
Did a woman named Belva run for president?
Belva Lockwood was the first woman (or second, depending on one's opinion, after Victoria Woodhull) to run for President of the United States. Lockwood ran as the candidate of the National Equal Rights Party. She ran in the presidential elections of 1884 and 1888. Her running mate was Marietta Stow in 1884.
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Who was technically the first female president?
Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson. The first woman President was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She hightailed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power.
Who was the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court?
In November 1880, Belva Lockwood became the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court when she appeared in Kaiser v. Stickney, 102 U.S. 176 (1880). The case concerned a $16,000 debt owed by Lockwood's client, Caroline Kaiser.
How old was Belva Lockwood when she died?
A woman of great energy, at the age of 83 Lockwood led a group of women on a tour of Europe. Until her final illness, she was marching on the streets of the capital in support of woman suffrage and international peace. She died in Washington, D.C., in 1917 at the age of 86.
What was the Equal Rights Party in 1884?
The National Equal Rights Party (NERP) was a United States minor party during the late 19th century that supported women's rights. The party was notable for nominating two female presidential candidates: Victoria Woodhull in 1872 and Belva Lockwood in 1884 and 1888.
What is Belva Davis known for?
As the first black female television journalist in the West, Belva Davis helped change the face and focus of broadcast news.
Who was the first woman at Harvard law?
Quick side note - women have been at HLS for less than seventy years, so - more to come. In 1947, Soia Mentschikoff became the first woman to teach at HLS.
Who was the first woman lawyer on Netflix?
Lidia Poët is the first woman to ever practice law in Italy, before being told she can never do it again. Set in late-19th-century Turin, Poët's story unpacks the fight for gender equality at a time when it didn't exist. Here's everything you need to know about the series The Law According to Lidia Poët.
What first lady was an attorney?
First Lady Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is a lawyer, writer, and the wife of the 44th and current President, Barack Obama.
Who was the first female lawyer?
1869 – Arabella Mansfield became the first female lawyer in the United States when she was admitted to the Iowa bar.
Who was the first woman to fight for equality?
Lucy Stone. They were pioneer theoreticians of the 19th-century women's rights movement. Esther Morris, the first woman to hold a judicial position, who led the first successful state campaign for woman suffrage, in Wyoming in 1869.
Who is the most famous lawyer of all time?
#1 Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician, and lawyer who became the 16th president of the United States of America. He passed the bar in 1836 in Springfield, Illinois, and began working under his wife's cousin, John T.
Who started equal rights?
In 1923, on the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, infamous American suffragette Alice Paul held a second national convention to begin campaigning for a new constitutional amendment, one that would guarantee the rights of women. It was then that she proposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Was there ever a female US president?
While democratic nations like the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany have elected women to the preeminent position in their governments, there has never been a woman president in the United States.
Which president signed a bill allowing female attorneys?
On February 15, 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a new law that would admit women as members of the Supreme Court bar and allow them to submit and argue cases at the high court.
How old was Liz Claiborne when she died?
Claiborne was advised in May 1997 that she had a rare form of cancer affecting the lining of the abdomen. She died of the cancer on June 26, 2007, at the age of 78.
Where is Belva Lockwood buried?
Belva Lockwood died in 1917 and was buried in Historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. She was 86.
How old was Charmayne Maxwell when she died?
Death. On February 28, 2015, Maxwell died after an accident in Los Angeles. She was at her home when she fell and cut her throat on a drinking glass that shattered during the fall. She died shortly afterwards in a hospital, aged 46.
Who was the 2nd woman on the Supreme Court?
Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the second woman – and first Jewish woman – ever to be sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice on #ThisDayInHistory in 1993.
Who was the first black woman to argue in the Supreme Court?
Constance Baker Motley was the first Black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, and in 1966, became the first to serve as a federal judge. Motley graduated from Columbia Law School in 1946.
Who was the first black attorney?
Macon Bolling Allen (1816-1894)
Considered to be both the first African American attorney to practice law in the United States and to hold a judicial position, Macon Bolling Allen broke numerous barriers.