Introduction "A Sphere with an Infinite and Indeterminable Radius" "I Was. the Only Woman in a Large School of Men" "Sweeter Manners, Purer Laws" "I Think I Haven't Neglected My Husband" "Some of Our Best Students Have Been Women" "Primarily for Women" "Woman's Position in the Profession" 'The Golden Age of Opportunity for Women" "Girl Lawyer Has Small Chance for Success" Appendix 1: Tables Appendix 2: Sources and Methods Abbreviations Notes Index
This book provides the first scholarly presentation of the history of women's efforts to practice law in the United States. Written by the leading scholar in the history of women lawyers, who is also a significant figure in writings on the history of women doctors, the book is bound to be of considerable interest to historians, lawyers, scholars of social change, and a general reading public interested in shifting gender roles...Drachman's book is a subtle, rich history interweaving stories of individual women with exploration of larger patterns of barriers presented both by the legal profession and by the larger society's expectations of gender and family roles. Following the developments between 1860 and 1930, the book examines a relatively tiny number of women lawyers compared with the current numbers, but as a result, individual stories and experiences can receive careful attention. Sisters in Law is a contribution to the burgeoning fields of women's studies, including women's history. It also will be an important contribution to the sociology of professions and its subfield, the legal profession...Besides simply advancing knowledge on this subject, the book reflects massive archival research and brings individual women's stories and words into a compelling narrative of the larger history. The method combines social and intellectual history. -- Martha L. Minow, Harvard Law School In accessible prose, Sisters in Law describes the first six or seven decades of women's entry into the legal profession. The admission of women to the bars of the various states, and to law schools, has never before been so deftly documented and distilled. The book is especially helpful in providing multiple biographical sketches of early women lawyers, and in exploring the conflicts women faced between family life and the pursuit of a legal career. -- Nancy F. Cott, Yale University
Virginia G. Drachman is Professor of History at Tufts University. She is the author of Women Lawyers and the Origins of Professional Identity in America and Hospital with a Heart.
Drachman brings a new and illuminating context to the often dry and
literal examination of this area of case law (early cases where the
courts resisted women's claims to practice law). In doing so, she
adds greatly to the existing analyses by adding the personal
dimension to the cases, revealing the lives of the women who
brought the cases, the links with the campaigns for legislative
changes and places the cases in the context of women's demands for
equality in all aspects of public life, particularly the suffrage
campaigns.
*Legal History*
Drachman tracks women from their state-by-state contests for
admission to the bar in the 1860s to their qualified integration
into the profession in the 1930s. She connects the grudging
toleration of female attorneys to the drive for woman suffrage and
deftly shows how rationales for accepting women as lawyers were
both intertwined with and separated from rationales for accepting
women as voters...This scrupulously researched and highly
accessible history of women lawyers has much to offer
readers...[and] is a highly welcome addition to the literature on
women, law, and the professions.
*American Historical Review*
In the scholarly, but highly entertaining, new book Sisters in Law,
author Virginia G. Drachman tackles the financial aspect [of being
a female professional]. 'At every turn' Drachman writes, '19th
century women lawyers faced the gnawing problem of how to be at
once a lady and a lawyer...Victorian-American society made a clear
distinction between business [a man's domain] and charity [a
woman's domain].' This mythical distinction...created tension for
women lawyers in the 19th century, a strain that is less dominant
today, but that may occasionally rise from the muck of the
unconscious.
*Syracuse New Times*
Weaving together materials from letters and manuscripts, studies of
the profession, institutional archives, and diction, [Drachman]
artfully tells the stories of the second generation of women
lawyers...This is a fine study that fills major voids in both the
history of the legal profession and the history of women
professionals.
*Journal of American History*
Sisters in Law is an interesting, well-documented account of the
struggle of women to gain admission to schools of law and the bar
and to obtain recognition as practicing attorneys. Virginia
Drachman, associate professor of history at Tufts University, has
previously written on the history of women in medicine and has
concluded that of the two professions, lawyers had the most
difficulties. Because sexual discrimination was rooted throughout
the legal system--in the courts, bar associations, law firms, and
legislatures--females met innumerable obstacles...Drachman's study
is valuable to anyone interested in the law or in women's
history...Sisters in Law makes clear the indebtedness of today's
women to the pioneers who overcame tremendous challenges to fulfill
their ambition and become lawyers. The book should be included in
any biography of women's studies.
*North Carolina Historical Review*
[Drachman's] central questions are: to what extent were women
lawyers integrated into the legal profession by 1940? What were the
barriers to integration? She finds her answers in the individual
stories reported in letters and papers and articles...[and] offers
rich description...[Her] report on the course of [the BRADWELL
case] and of similar cases in Massachusetts in Wisconsin fill out
the stories in fascinating detail. The author provides a more
thorough examination of the early women's law school experiences in
the traditional schools and the short-lived women's schools and
classes than can be found in the available texts that focus
primarily on the more recent conditions of legal education. What
the book offers most strongly...is the sense of the personal
struggles of the women who wanted professional work other than
traditional school teaching and social welfare...This is a lively
book, rooted in wonderful individual cases, and worth your reading
time.
*Law and Politics Book Review*
Sometimes it may not seem like the law is very enlightened when it
comes to women, but life in the Bar has certainly improved in this
century. Virginia Drachman explores the history of women lawyers
from the 1860s to the 1930s revealing a rigidly engendered
profession. These women fought for access to law schools and then
for admission to bar associations, but 'never completely overcame
the sexual discrimination that was so pervasive in the legal
profession.'
*Georgia Bar Journal*
This book provides the first scholarly presentation of the history
of women's efforts to practice law in the United States. Written by
the leading scholar in the history of women lawyers, who is also a
significant figure in writings on the history of women doctors, the
book is bound to be of considerable interest to historians,
lawyers, scholars of social change, and a general reading public
interested in shifting gender roles...Drachman's book is a subtle,
rich history interweaving stories of individual women with
exploration of larger patterns of barriers presented both by the
legal profession and by the larger society's expectations of gender
and family roles. Following the developments between 1860 and 1930,
the book examines a relatively tiny number of women lawyers
compared with the current numbers, but as a result, individual
stories and experiences can receive careful attention. Sisters in
Law is a contribution to the burgeoning fields of women's studies,
including women's history. It also will be an important
contribution to the sociology of professions and its subfield, the
legal profession...Besides simply advancing knowledge on this
subject, the book reflects massive archival research and brings
individual women's stories and words into a compelling narrative of
the larger history. The method combines social and intellectual
history.
*Martha L. Minow, Harvard Law School*
In accessible prose, Sisters in Law describes the first six or
seven decades of women's entry into the legal profession. The
admission of women to the bars of the various states, and to law
schools, has never before been so deftly documented and distilled.
The book is especially helpful in providing multiple biographical
sketches of early women lawyers, and in exploring the conflicts
women faced between family life and the pursuit of a legal
career.
*Nancy F. Cott, Yale University*
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