Response # 38

Judge Jane M Boulin was the first black law grad from Yale Law School. She is also the first black judge in the state of New York. She gave the opening for minorities to be able to pursue a degree and have the ability to practice law in a society that at the time was very much segregated. It gave other minorities hope and encouragement to break the “glass ceiling” that existed during that time. She worked for her father as a clerk until she passed the New York State bar exam in 1937. Mayor LaGuardia promoted her to judge of domestic relations court where she served for forty years. She is a role model in the field of law to show that breaking the glass ceiling is a possible when all odds are against a person. It provides the power for women in today’s world to continue to push on the ceiling in order for it to change. Just hoping it will change at some point in time cannot do it. Women need to take a stand for what they believe in and speak out against things that are not just. Another important woman is by the name of Myra Bradwell. Myra Bradwell studied law with her husband who was a judge. She later applied to take the Chicago bar in which she was denied access. She took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court where the states’ ruling was upheld. The Supreme Court stated that women do not belong in the positions to interpret law. Rather their primary role was to be a wife and a mother and this was by the law of the creator. This is significant because later in 1885 the decision was overturned and Bradwell was given the license to practice law. It was the first time a women was able to break the glass ceiling and prove to society that they have the right and ability to practice law.