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Shirley Schlanger Abrahamson, 1976

Madison, Wisconsin. Shirley Abrahamson, the first woman to be appointed as a Justice of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, takes her oath. View the original source document: WHI 98857

Although for thousands of years justice was depicted as female, women were prohibited from working as judges and attorneys until recently.

Ryan's Opinion

Wisconsin's Chief Justice is currently Shirley Abrahamson. In the 1870s Edward G. Ryan held the office. During that time, Ryan made his opinion clear on whether women should be permitted to practice law in the state's highest court:

"We cannot but think the common law wise in excluding women from the profession of the law. The profession enters largely into the well-being of society; and to be honorably filled and safely to society, exacts the devotion of life. The law of nature destines and qualifies the female sex for the bearing and nurture of the children of our race, and for the custody of the homes of the world and their maintenance in love and honor. And all lifelong calling of women inconsistent with these radical and sacred duties of their sex, as is the profession of the law, are departures from the order of nature, and when voluntary, treason against it."

Ryan had a history of opposing women's rights, having adamantly opposed a proposal to give married women property rights at the 1846 Constitutional Convention.

Writing for the court, Ryan found that, "in view of the uniform exclusion of females from the bar by the common law, and in the absence of any other evidence of legislative intent to require their admission" and because "there is nothing in the statutes of this state providing for the admission of females to the bar," women could not practice before the Supreme Court.

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Lavinia Goodell

Quarter-length oval framed portrait of Lavinia Goodall. View the original source document: WHI 111556

Lavinia Goodell

Lavinia Goodell of Janesville, responded to the decision by enlisting the support of John Cassoday, speaker of the State Assembly. He introduced a bill explicitly providing that "no person shall be denied admission or license to practice as an attorney in any court of this state on account of sex." The bill became law on March 22, 1877. And when Goodell later tried to act as an attorney in a court case before the Supreme Court, they admitted her — with Ryan dissenting. 

Perhaps neither Goodell nor Ryan could have imagined a day when the only candidates for the state Supreme Court would be female, or when the Chief Justice would be a woman. It took another four decades for women to obtain the right to vote in Wisconsin.

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Lavinia Goodell

See more about Lavinia Goodell on the Society's website.