The recent movies RBG and On the Basis of Sex demonstrate some of the hurdles U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to overcome. In this month’s ENewsletter, we profile two other legal pioneers: Florence Allen and Constance Baker Motley.
A woman of many firsts, Florence Allen did her undergraduate work (Phi Beta Kappa) at Case Western University. Since the law school at Case Western did not admit women, she began her law education at the University of Chicago in 1909, the only woman in a class of 100 students. Having to pay for her education, she moved to New York City, worked with immigrants and as a lecturer before enrolling at the New York University Law School. Although second in her class when she graduated in 1913, she did not receive any job offers from the New York legal firms (the same situation faced decades later by RBG) so she moved back to Cleveland, Ohio.
