BRADWELL, MYRA COLBY

BRADWELL, MYRA COLBY

Myra Bradwell was a legal editor and an early
leader in the struggle for WOMEN’S RIGHTS,
especially in the legal profession.
Bradwell was born February 12, 1831, in
Manchester, Vermont. After an early childhood
in Portage, New York, she moved with her family
to Illinois and attended the ladies seminary
in Elgin, where she subsequently became a
teacher. In 1852 she married James B. Bradwell,
an Englishman who had immigrated to the
United States and studied law in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Bradwells established a private
school in Memphis but moved to Chicago in
1854. There James Bradwell opened a law office
and eventually became a judge of the Cook
County Court.
After the move to Chicago Bradwell began to
study law with her husband with the intention
of becoming his assistant; she later decided to
establish a practice of her own. In 1868 she
founded the Chicago Legal News, a weekly legal
newspaper.With Bradwell serving as both editor
and business manager, the News quickly became
a success. It was chartered by the Illinois legislature,
which also passed legislation establishing
the paper as a valid place for the publication of
legal notices and allowing state laws and opinions
published in the paper to be offered as evidence
in court. Under her editorial leadership,
the News called for the regulation of corporations,
the enactment of ZONING ordinances, and the establishment of professional standards for
the legal profession. The News building was
destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871 but Bradwell
quickly arranged to have the paper printed
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and published the
next issue on schedule.
In 1869, after passing the state bar examination,
Bradwell applied to the Illinois Supreme
Court for ADMISSION TO THE BAR. The court
rejected her application on the ground that as a
married woman she “would be bound neither by
her express contracts nor by those implied contracts
which it is the policy of the law to create
between attorney and client.” She reapplied, but
the court rejected her again, this time because
she was a woman, regardless of her marital status.
The court said that if it were to admit
women to the bar, it would be exercising its
authority in a manner “never contemplated” by
the state legislature when it granted that authority
(In re Bradwell, 55 Ill. 535 [1870]). She
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which
upheld the Illinois decision, saying that it could
not interfere with each state’s right to regulate
the granting of licenses within its borders (Bradwell
v. People, 16 Wall [83 U.S.] 130, 21 L. Ed. 442
[1872]).
In 1882, however, the Illinois legislature
passed a law guaranteeing all persons, regardless
of sex, the right to select a profession as they
wished. Although Bradwell never reapplied for
admission to the bar, the Illinois Supreme Court
informed her that her original application had
been accepted. As a result, she became the first
woman member of the Illinois State Bar Association;
she was also the first woman member of
the Illinois Press Association. On March 28,
1892, she was admitted to practice before the
U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition to her efforts to win admission
to the bar, Bradwell played a role in the broader
women’s rights movement. She was active in the
Illinois Woman Suffrage Association and helped
form the American Woman Suffrage Association.
She was also influential in the passage of
laws by the Illinois legislature that gave married
women the right to keep wages they earned and
protected the rights of widows.
During the latter years of her life, Bradwell
was one of a number of Chicago citizens who
worked to secure the World’s Fair for their city.
When the fair was held in 1893 she chaired the
committee on law reform of its auxiliary
congress.
Bradwell died February 14, 1894, in Chicago,
Illinois.
FURTHER READINGS
Cushman, Claire, ed. 1993. The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated
Biographies, 1789–1993. Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Quarterly.
Friedman, Jane M. 1993. America’s First Woman Lawyer: The
Biography of Myra Bradwell. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus
Books.
Paper, Lewis J. 1983. Brandeis: An Intimate Biography. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Urofsky,Melvin I. 1981. Louis D. Brandeis and the Progressive
Tradition. Boston: Little, Brown.
CROSS-REFERENCES
“Bradwell v. Illinois” (Appendix, Primary Document).