ABA Journal wordmark
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Topics
    • Features
  • Latest Issue
  • Podcasts
    • Asked and Answered
    • Legal Rebels
    • Modern Law Library
  • Columnists
    • Advocacy
    • Bryan Garner on Words
    • Intersection
    • On Well-Being
    • Mind Your Business
    • My Path to Law
    • Storytelling
    • Supreme Court Report
    • Your Voice
    • Adam Banner
    • Ari Kaplan
    • Erwin Chemerinsky
    • Marcel Strigberger
    • Nicole Black
    • Susan Smith Blakely
  • Members Who Inspire
  1. Home
  2. Galleries
  3. 13 Pioneering Women in American Law

13 Pioneering Women in American Law

❮
❯
❮
❯

Arabella "Belle" Babb Mansfield

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Belle has the distinction of being the first woman admitted to a state bar in the United States in June 1869, at the age of 23. After graduating as valedictorian from Iowa Wesleyan College, she had joined her brother’s firm and served an apprenticeship in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Although the bar examination law in Iowa specifically referred to men, she was permitted to take the exam, which she passed.

Her examiners wrote, “Your committee takes unusual pleasure in recommending the admission of Mrs. Mansfield, not only because she is the first lady who has applied for this authority in the state, but because in her examination she has given the very best rebuke possible to the imputation that ladies cannot qualify for the practice of law.”

After a judge ruled that although the Iowa statue was specifically about men, it could be applied to women as well, Belle was granted entrance to the Iowa state bar. In 1870, the Iowa legislature removed the gendered language in the admissions statute altogether to open the profession to women.

Though Belle never practiced law, she became a faculty member at Iowa Wesleyan and DePauw University, and toured the lecture circuit. She died in 1911.


Most Read
Latest featured news ...


Topics: Career & Practice
Afternoon Briefs: DOJ civil rights nominee defends letter; lawyer charged in triple murder
Complete list of topics ...
Your Voice
11 tips to survive your freshman year as an associate
Articles and commentary ...
Podcasts
How one firm is trying to convince technology clients to embrace subscription pricing
More podcasts ...


ABA Journal logo.
  • ABA Journal
  • American Bar Association
  • 321 N Clark St
  • Chicago, IL 60654-7598
  • 800-285-2221
  • 312-988-5522
  • Features
  • Photo Galleries
  • Magazine Back Issues
  • Magazine Digital Edition
  • RSS Feed
  • Search
  • Corrections
  • About the ABA Journal
  • Authors
  • Code of Conduct
  • Contests
  • Privacy Policy
  •  California Privacy Rights
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact the ABA Journal
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Reprints
  • Tips & Pitches
Copyright 2021 American Bar Association. All rights reserved.