NAWL History

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FIRST ANNUAL SESSION OF THE WOMEN LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION - AUGUST 28, 1923

Seated to the right of Chief Justice, former President, WIlliam Howard Taft, is Emilie Bullowa, President of NAWL 1923-24,
as well as Judge Mary O'Toole of Washington, D.C., Customs Court Judge Genevieve Cline, N.Y. and Phoebe Munnecke of Michigan.

NAWL Timeline | NAWL Celebrates Black History Month | NAWL Celebrates Women's History Month | NAWL Presidents

Timeline of Important Events

Arabella Babb Mansfield (Image courtesy of the Belle Babb Mansfield Memorial)	1869	Arabella Babb Mansfield became the first American woman lawyer admitted to the bar.
	1872	Charlotte E. Ray became the first African-American woman lawyer admitted to the bar. NAWL Member, Simone Wilson-Brito wrote and provided a feature on Charlotte E. Ray's legacy for 2021 Black History Month. The feature can be found here.
	1879	Belva A. Lockwood became the first woman lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Charlotte E. Ray (Image courtesy of Black Entertainment Television)	1899	The Women Lawyers' Club was founded by a group of 18 women lawyers in New York City.
	1911	The first issue of the Women Lawyers Journal was published (pdf). It cost 15¢ per issue and had 25 subscribers.
	1914	Membership in the Women Lawyers' Club grew to 170, with representation from 25 states.

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NAWL Suffragettes

Long before women could vote,

they became attorneys.™

Belva A. Lockwood (Image courtesy of the U.S. National Archives)	1915	Women's suffrage became the first major project undertaken by the Club. Three time NAWL President, Olive Stott Gabriel, argued for women's voting rights across the county.
	1918	Judge Mary Belle Grossman and Mary Florence Lathrop became the first two women lawyers admitted to the American Bar Association.
	1919	Congress passed the 19th Amendment and the Women Lawyers' Club membership mobilized to work for ratification by the states.
Judge Mary Belle Grossman (Image courtesy of ohiobio.org)		During the first four decades of the Club (and later, the Association) worked consistently on social legislation - including child labor laws, minimum wage, divorce and marriage laws, the right for a woman to keep her name after marriage, and the right for women to serve on juries.
	1923	Due to increasing nationwide membership, the Women Lawyers' Club became the National Association of Women Lawyers.
		NAWL held its first national convention in Minneapolis with Chief Justice William Howard Taft.
Mary Florence Lathrop (Image courtesy of American Bar Association)	1934	NAWL member Florence E. Allen of Ohio was appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Roosevelt and she became the nation's first woman federal judge and the highest-ranking woman jurist.
	1935	NAWL was one of the first national organizations to endorse the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, first introduced to Congress in 1922. The ERA becomes an ongoing high priority for the Association over the next several decades.
	1943	NAWL became an Affiliated Organization of the American Bar Association.
Florence E. Allen (Image courtesy of the Supreme Court of Ohio)		NAWL led the creation of opportunities for women to serve in the military. More than 150 NAWL members were serving in the WACS, WAVES, and the Marine Corps Women's Reserve.
	1945	NAWL became an official NGO Observer of the newly-founded United Nations.
	1949	The National Association of Women Lawyers celebrated its 50th Anniversary in St. Louis.
Maguerite Rawalt (Image courtesy of American Bar Association)	1952	NAWL drafted the Uniform Divorce Bill, calling it "the greatest project NAWL has ever undertaken."
	1954	The first NAWL office was established in the new ABA Center in Chicago.
	1961	NAWL past president, Marguerite Rawalt, was appointed by President Kennedy to the President's Commission on the Status of Women.

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Sarah Hughes swearing in Vice President Johnson
(Image courtesy of Cecil W. Stoughton)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Image courtesy of Columbia Law)	1965	NAWL member Lorna E. Lockwood became the first woman chief justice of any state.
	1972	Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. The ratification of the amendment by the states became NAWL's major project for the rest of the decade. In 1972, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke became the first African American woman from California to win a House seat. NAWL Member, Vicky McPherson wrote a feature on Burke's legacy for Black History Month in 2021.
	1974	The Women Lawyers Journal carried a comprehensive review of the need for the Equal Rights Amendment written by Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the first tenured woman law professor at Columbia University.
Sandra Day O'Connor (Image courtesy of CBS News)	1981	Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
	1983	Mahala Ashley Dickerson became the first African-American president of NAWL. In 1983, Hon. Juanita Kidd Stout spoke at NAWL's Regional Meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. You can find her speech here.
	1985	NAWL began granting membership to male applicants.
Juanita Kidd Stout	1988	NAWL member, Juanita Kidd Stout, was appointed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, becoming the first African-American woman to serve on a state's highest court.
	1989	The NAWL assembly endorsed the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
	1995	Roberta Cooper Ramo was elected the first woman president of the American Bar Association.
Martha W. Barnett (Image courtesy of Holland & Knight)	1997	NAWL member, Martha W. Barnett, became the first recipient of NAWL's highest honor, the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award.
	1999	NAWL celebrated its Centennial Anniversary. To commemorate the anniversary and NAWL's legacy, NAWL member Selma Moidel Smith authored the 'Centennial History of NAWL' in the 1999 Summer issue of the Women Lawyers Journal.
	2000	The first Directory of Women Lawyers and Women Owned Law Firms was published.
Sonia Sotomayor (Image courtesy of NY Times)		Sonia Sotomayor received the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award.
	2005	NAWL's first Annual General Counsel Institute was held in New York City.
	2006	NAWL published the first National Survey on the Retention and Promotion of Women in the Law.
Elena Kagan (Image courtesy of US Supreme Court)	2008	NAWL published the Summit Report Actions for Advancing Women into Law Firm Leadership.
	2009	NAWL's independent Supreme Court Committee recommended the confirmation of Elena Kagan as Associate Justice to the Supreme Court.
	2010	NAWL holds regional meetings on the status of the Summit Report Actions for Advancing Women into Law Firm Leadership.
	2014	NAWL introduces the NAWL Challenge Club
	2016	NAWL issues its one-third by 2020 Challenge to the profession.

Information gathered from NAWL's archives and the writings of Mary Zimmerman and Selma Moidel Smith

NAWL Presidents

Year of NAWL Presidency	Name	Location
1899 - 1911	Rosalie Loew	New York, NY
1911 - 1913	Marion Weston Cottle	New York, NY
1913 - 1914	Edith Julia Griswold	New York, NY
1914 - 1915	Jean H. Norris	New York, NY
1915 - 1917	Olive Stott Gabriel	New York, NY
1917 - 1918	Sarah Stephenson	New York, NY
1918 - 1920	Jean H. Norris	New York, NY
1920 - 1924	Emilie M. Bullowa	New York, NY
1925 - 1927	Rose Falls Bres	Brooklyn, NY
1927 -1930	Katharine R. Pike	Washington, D.C.
1930 - 1934	Olive Stott Gabriel	New York, NY
1934 - 1935	Burnita Shelton Matthews	Washington, D.C.
1935 - 1938	Percilla Lawyer Randolph	Los Angeles, CA
1938 - 1939	Laura M. Berrien	Washington, D.C.
1939 - 1940	Helen M. Cirese	Chicago, IL
1940 - 1941	Florence Thacker Bradley	Indianapolis, IN
1941 - 1942	Gertrude Harris	Atlanta, GA
1942 - 1943	Marguerite Rawalt	Corpus Christi, TX
1943 - 1944	Daphne Robert Leeds	Washington, D.C.
1944 - 1945	Lula E. Bachman	Michigan
1945 - 1946	Laura Miller Derry	Louisville, KY
1946 - 1947	Adele I. Springer	Brooklyn, NY
1947 - 1949	Charlotte E. Gauer	Chicago, IL
1949 - 1950	Eleanor March Moody	Boston, MA
1950 - 1951	J. Helen Slough	Cleveland, OH
1951 - 1952	Mary H. Zimmerman	Michigan
1952 -1954	Dorothea K. Blender	Chicago, IL
1954 - 1955	Diana J. Auger	Boston, MA
1955 - 1956	Victoria V. Gilbert	Arkansas
1956 - 1957	Neva B. Talley	Little Rock, AR
1957 - 1958	Grace B. Doering	Cleveland, OH
1958 - 1959	Nina Miglionico	Birmingham, AL
1959 - 1960	Maurine H. Abernathy	Washington, D.C.
1960 - 1961	Rebecca Bowles Hawkins	Birmingham, AL
1961 - 1962	Anna O. Blum	Monroe, WI
1962 - 1963	Dorothy M. Orsini Jones	Little Rock, AR
1963 - 1964	Catherine Anagnost	Chicago, IL
1964 - 1965	Catherine Edmondson	Clarksville, TN
1965 - 1966	Mattie Belle Davis	Florida
1966 - 1967	Mary Louise DeMarco McLeod	Michigan
1967 - 1968	Grace D. Cox	New York, NY
1968 - 1969	Ruth Gentry Talley	Louisiana
1969 - 1970	Jettie Pierce Selvig	San Francisco, CA
1970 - 1971	Adele T. Weaver	Miami Beach, FL
1971 - 1972	Jean McVeety	Minneapolis, MN
1972 - 1973	NettaBell Girard Larson	Wyoming
1973 - 1974	Helen Viney Porter	Northbrook, IL
1974 - 1975	Marjorie M. Childs	San Francisco, CA
1975 - 1976	Kathleen Ryan Dacey	Boston, MA
1976 - 1977	Lee Berger Anderson	North Chevy Chase, MD
1977 - 1978	Mary Alice Duffy	Philadelphia, PA
1978 - 1979	Miriam G. Newman	New York, NY
1979 - 1980	Sheila Gallagher	Anchorage, AK
1980 - 1981	Ann W. Lake	Boston, MA
1981 - 1982	Meredith P. Sparks	Coral Gables, FL
1982 - 1983	Claire E. Morrison	Detroit, MI
1983 - 1984	Mahala Ashley Dickerson	Anchorage, AK
1984 - 1985	Mary Jo Cusack	Columbus, OH
1985 - 1986	Virginia S. Mueller	Sacremento, CA
1986 - 1987	Irene Redstone	Miami, FL
1987 - 1988	Sylvia Marks-Barnett	Oklahoma City, OK
1988 - 1989	Leona Beane	New York, NY
1989 - 1990	Gail McKnight Beckman	Atlanta, GA
1990 - 1991	Jeanne Schubert Barnum	Cherry Hill, NJ
1991 - 1992	Janis L. Blough	Lansing, MI
1992 - 1993	Veronica C. Boda	Brigantine, NJ
1993 - 1994	Faith F. Driscoll	Dedham, MA
1994 - 1996	Myrna S. Raeder	Los Angeles, CA
1996 - 1997	Sally Lee Foley	Bloomfield Hills, MI
1997 - 1998	Janice L. Sperow	San Diego, CA
1998 - 1999	Susan Fox Gills	Chicago, IL
1999 - 2000	Katherine J. Henry	Washington, D.C.
2000 - 2001	Gail Sasnett-Stauffer	Gainesville, FL
2001 - 2002	Elizabeth K. Bransdorfer	Grand Rapids, MI
2002 - 2003	Ellen A. Pansky	South Pasadena, CA
2003 - 2004	Zoe Sanders Nettles	Columbia, SC
2004 - 2005	Stephanie Scharf	Chicago, IL
2005 - 2006	Lorraine K. Koc	Philadelphia, PA
2006 - 2007	Cathy Fleming	New York, NY
2007 - 2008	Holly English	Roseland, NJ
2008 - 2009	Lisa Horowitz	Washington, D.C.
2009 - 2010	Lisa Gilford	Los Angeles, CA
2010 - 2011	Dorian Denburg	Atlanta, GA
2011 - 2012	Heather C. Giordanella	Philadelphia, PA
2012 - 2013	Beth L. Kaufman	New York, NY
2013 - 2014	Deborah S. Froling	Washington, D.C.
2014 - 2015	Lisa M. Passante	Philadelphia, PA
2015 - 2016	Marsha L. Anastasia	Stamford, CT
2016 - 2017	Leslie Richards-Yellen	Chicago, IL / New York, NY
2017 - 2018	Angela Beranek Brandt	St. Paul, MN
2018 - 2019	Sarretta C. McDonough	Los Angeles, CA
2019 - 2020	Kristin D. Sostowski	Newark, NJ
2020 - 2021	Karen S. Morris	San Antonio, TX