In recent years, stories of pioneering women in law have gained renewed attention, particularly through portrayals in film and television. The Netflix series The Law According to Lidia Poët dramatizes Poët's experiences as a trailblazing female lawyer in Italy, highlighting her determination to challenge a legal system that rigidly excluded women and her advocacy for justice.
Before Lidia Poët's struggle in 1883, few European women managed to obtain law degrees or pass the bar due to widespread prohibition against women entering the legal profession. Most European universities and legal institutions explicitly barred women from studying or practicing law. For women in Poët’s time, restrictions were so strict that they generally could not:
- Enroll in law school,
- Sit for bar examinations,
- Gain any official legal recognition.
Most European legal institutions were entirely closed to women, and recorded cases of women even attempting to enter the field formally are rare before the 1880s. Broader acceptance of women in the legal profession in Europe only began with legal reforms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spurred on by women like Poët.
Eliza Orme (United Kingdom)
Eliza Orme became the first woman to earn a law degree in England in the 1870s, but she couldn’t practice because British law barred women from becoming barristers or solicitors. Instead, Orme worked as a "law stationer," offering legal services like drafting documents. Although highly qualified, her ambitions were blocked by regulations that prevented women from entering the legal profession formally.
Cornelia Sorabji (India, educated in the UK)
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman to study law at Oxford University, beginning in 1882, just a year before Poët’s legal journey began. Although Sorabji completed her studies, she couldn’t be awarded a degree due to gender restrictions. She later returned to India, where she faced substantial barriers to practicing law and was only able to practice formally after 1923. Her career highlights the gender- and colonial-based challenges that women encountered in both British and Indian legal systems.
Lidia Poët’s Struggle for Legal Equality
Lidia Poët faced significant social, legal, and gender-based barriers as one of Italy's first female lawyers in the late 19th century:
Gender Discrimination: In 1883, Poët passed her bar exam and was admitted to practice law in Turin. However, her admission was quickly revoked by Italy’s Court of Appeals, which argued that women were constitutionally unfit for the legal profession, citing traditional gender roles and doubts about women’s intellectual capacity.
Legal and Institutional Barriers: Italian laws and professional codes didn’t permit women to join professional associations like the bar. As a result, Poët could not gain the full professional status necessary to argue cases and act independently in court, making it impossible for her to practice law despite her qualifications.
Social Stigma and Prejudice: Pursuing a legal career exposed Poët to societal criticism from a conservative public that saw women’s roles as domestic, not professional. This social stigma made it difficult for her and other women who defied traditional roles.
Despite her appeals, Italy didn’t officially grant Lidia (women) the right to practice law until 1919. During this period, Poët continued to work in her brother’s law firm and advocate for women’s rights, though she couldn’t argue cases directly.
Early Legal Pioneers in the United States
In the U.S., three pioneering women faced similar obstacles in the 19th century:
Charlotte E. Ray: The first African American woman to receive a law degree in the United States, Charlotte Ray graduated from Howard University in 1872. However, racial and gender discrimination made it extremely difficult for her to find clients, ultimately forcing her to abandon her practice.
Myra Bradwell: Myra Bradwell, a legal reformer and journalist, passed the Illinois bar exam in 1869 but was denied admission due to her gender. In Bradwell v. Illinois (1873), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this decision, citing traditional gender roles as a reason to restrict women’s access to the profession. Despite this, Bradwell continued to advocate for women’s rights and received an honorary law license in 1890.
Margaret Brent (Colonial America): In 1648, Margaret Brent acted as a legal representative in colonial Maryland, managing the estate of Lord Baltimore. Although not formally trained, she argued cases in court, a rare feat for a woman of her time. Brent was ultimately denied a formal role due to her gender, exemplifying the earliest opposition to women in law.
These women faced deeply entrenched legal, societal, and institutional barriers that restricted their ability to practice law formally. Their efforts, though, set foundational challenges to legal norms and paved the way for women like Lidia Poët.
The Broader Legacy of Women in Law
The barriers faced by early European pioneers like Lidia Poët, alongside American trailblazers like Charlotte Ray, Myra Bradwell, and Margaret Brent, reflect the global struggle women endured in gaining legal recognition. In New Zealand, Ethel Benjamin became the first woman to earn an LLB at Otago in 1893. While Kate Edger was earlier with the first New Zealand woman to receive a university degree, and the first woman in the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1877, marking important strides in law for women in the British Empire.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Depicted in the film On the Basis of Sex (2018), Ginsburg’s career was marked by relentless advocacy for women’s rights, despite encountering sexism both at Harvard Law School in the 1950s and in the legal job market. Although she graduated at the top of her class at Columbia Law School in 1959, Ruth Bader Ginsburg struggled to find employment as a lawyer. Despite her impressive qualifications, Ginsburg faced severe gender discrimination, leading to rejection from numerous law firms. Eventually, she accepted a teaching position at Rutgers Law School, where she concentrated on issues of gender discrimination. However, her first major court case did not arise directly from her association with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Initially, she worked on smaller cases related to gender equality before formally joining forces with the ACLU in 1972 to establish the Women’s Rights Project. Her first notable case with the ACLU was Reed v. Reed (1971), in which she argued against gender discrimination in estate law, marking a significant victory in her civil rights career and paving the way for her later successes in the Supreme Court. Ginsburg’s legacy has since reshaped U.S. law and public understanding of gender discrimination, solidifying her status as a contemporary icon of gender equality.
The popularization of these stories has brought renewed appreciation for the legal and cultural reforms initiated by women like Poët and Ginsburg. Fighting against legal systems hostile to their aspirations, these women set precedents and contributed to societal shifts toward gender equity. Today, these portrayals remind audiences that the challenges faced by early women lawyers are part of an ongoing movement for equality in the legal profession.
Comments
Post a Comment