150 Years of Women at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

The year 2020 is remarkable in many ways: it’s an election year, in the midst of a global pandemic, with a likewise global revitalization in the cause of Civil Rights. For women, it marks a century of suffrage, with August 18 the 100th anniversary of the hard-won ratification of the 19th Amendment.

However, a full fifty years before this milestone event, Northwestern Law graduated its—and America’s—first female law student. From that point on, it has continued to educate and employ remarkable women who have made a difference both at the Law School and in the legal world at-large.

A century after Northwestern Law first opened its doors to women, amidst criticism that a woman’s proper place in society remained in the home, feminist politician Bella Abzug’s  campaign declared “This woman’s place is in the House … the House of Representatives!” This exhibit, whose name is derived from that slogan, tells the story of several Northwestern Law women who fought for their place in the legal world, and helped make a place for those who would follow.

While we are only able to feature seven women in this exhibit, we recognize that the impact our professors and alumnae have made is much broader and continues today. To see additional stories, please check our social media accounts, or to nominate a Northwestern Law woman to be featured, please click here.

A Woman's Place

...is in the classroom

Ada Kepley (1847-1925) became the first American woman to graduate from law school when she completed a bachelor of laws degree from the Union College of Law, which is now Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. To learn more about Ms. Kepley, such as her struggle for admission to the bar and her work with the temperance movement, click here.

 

...is in court

Catharine Waugh McCulloch (1862-1945) graduated from Union College of Law in 1886, and in 1907 she became Illinois’ first female justice of the peace. To learn more about Ms. McCulloch, including her legal love story and her work for women’s suffrage, click here.

...is in chambers

Mary Bartelme (1866-1954) belonged to the 1894 Union College of Law graduating class, and distinguished herself as the first woman in Illinois elected as a judge to a high jurisdiction court, the Circuit Court of Cook County. To learn more about Ms. Bartelme, her work in the juvenile court, and why she was called “Suitcase Mary,” click here.

...is in the clinic

Nellie MacNamara (1888-1959) graduated from Northwestern Law in 1917 only to return to the school in 1928 as a faculty member. She became the first female director of the legal clinic, retiring in 1955. To learn more about Ms. MacNamara, her two life goals, and her work in the clinic, click here.

...is in the professor's chair

Dawn Clark Netsch (1926-2013), like Nellie MacNamara before her, was both an alumna and, later, a member of faculty at the Law School. In 1965, she joined Northwestern Law as an associate professor of law, making her the first woman to serve on the research and teaching faculty. To learn more about Ms. Netsch, including her mark on Illinois government, please click here.

 

 

Joyce A. Hughes joined the Law School faculty in 1975 and received tenure four years later, making her the first Black woman to do so at any school of Northwestern University, as as well at any non-historically Black law school in the nation. To learn more about Ms. Hughes and her contributions to the Law School, click here.

 

 

...is in the dean's office

Kimberly Yuracko came to Northwestern Law in 2002, and in the years since she has filled many roles: professor, scholar, associate dean for academic affairs: faculty and research, and, from 2018-2020, the Law School’s first female dean. To learn more about Ms. Yuracko and her accomplishments at Northwestern, please click here.

Exhibit Credits

Curator and Designer: Brittany Adams

Assistant Curator: Tyne Lowe

 

With special thanks to Joyce A. Hughes and Kimberly A. Yuracko.

For more information, please contact the Pritzker Legal Research Center.