Page 9 - OWLS Spring 2017 AdvanceSheet

100 Years of Counting Women Attorneys in Oregon

Tales of Serendipitous Discoveries

By Trudy Allen
ne hundred years ago, on the women admitted in Oregon through Until 1981, when the OSB started ac-
April 22, 1917, an article ap- 1970 (about 234). According to my latest tually tracking the sex of its admittees,
Opeared in The Oregon Sunday count, by March 1941, approximately 135 assessment of the numbers of women ad-
Journal with a bold headline: “Nearly Half women had been admitted, so the article mitted has been a guessing game, based
Hundred Women Have Been Admitted missed some (about 18). And although on assumptions about the admittees’
to Oregon Bar.” There are 49 women this number is “not large,” it’s an increase names. It’s fairly safe to assume that the
listed in the article, and 16 of them are of 80 women since 1917, an average of names Elizabeth, Dorothy, Harriet, Helen,
pictured. It had been 31 years since the 3.3 new women per year. Ruth, etc. are women. But what about
Oregon Supreme Court had admitted For some unknown reason, a few Pat, Lee, Glyde, Leslie, Lindsay, and Kaye?
Mary Leonard, the first woman admitted years had “bumper crops”: There was Likewise, what about the women who
to practice in Oregon. Having “nearly an early and intriguing sudden surge were admitted under their maiden names
half hundred” women lawyers in that of nine women admitted in 1913, eight and later married? Sometimes these turn
time was probably very surprising to in 1914, and eight in 1915, which are up as duplicate entries. In my research,
contemporary readers, but it’s surprising large numbers considering that in most it has sometimes been difficult to solve
even today. Perhaps even more surprising, subsequent years until the early 1970s these mysteries, but I have resolved most,
my research indicates that in fact the only two or three, and rarely more than using census records, obituaries, etc.
number was even better than 49; it was five, women were admitted. However, The OSB has tried to reconstruct its list
likely 55. seven women were admitted in 1921, six of early admittees through 1981 (most
From a national perspective, 55 is a in 1924 and in 1937—and there was one prior records were lost or destroyed), but
large number compared to states that jump to nine in 1953. These numbers are most deceased lawyers are missing from
had not yet admitted any women by especially surprising compared to those that list. Given these contingencies, the
1917: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Rhode in some later years: there was only one OSB estimates that a total of 2,188 people
Island, and South Carolina. By 1920, 65 woman in each of 1957, 1959, and 1967. had been admitted to practice by 1941.
1
women had been admitted in Oregon, In 1967, the one woman admittee was Thus, the estimated percentage of wom-
as compared to 1,700 women lawyers Betty Roberts, who has described what en admittees (to total admittees) by 1941
in the United States, so Oregon’s share a lonely time it was for women lawyers. Continued on page 10
was 3.8%—significantly higher than Or-
egon’s percentage of the U.S. population
(0.74%). In her book The Invisible Bar,
Karen Berger Morello suggests that wom-
en in the West faced a more balanced
view of their abilities than existed back A M AT O M E DI AT ION
East, due to the fact that “the myth that
they were faint-hearted and in need of
protection could not be perpetuated on
the frontier” after they had proven their
toughness on the move westward; thus,
they experienced greater acceptance in
their admission to the professions.
2
Twenty-four years after the “nearly LISA AMATO
half hundred” list, on March 2, 1941, The D I S P U T E R E S O LU T I O N S ERV I CE S
Sunday Oregonian published an article
entitled “Oregon Portias . . . Their Ranks
Are Not Large.” Under this headline TELE 503.789.3262
are two stories: “Few Women Actually EMAIL lisa@amatomediation.com
Practice Law in State” and “Only 117 WEB amatomediation.com
Feminine Attorneys Admitted to Bar
in 56 Years.” Despite what we in 2017 MED IAT I O N • AR BI T R AT I ON
would view as an archaic reference to
the “feminine” attorneys, under this
latter title all 117 women are listed, and
the list is a gold mine of information.
I’ve been using it and several other lists
I’ve collected over the years, along with
the remaining records at the Oregon
State Bar (OSB) and other news articles
I’ve found online, to create a list of all

OREGON WOMEN LAWYERS AdvanceSheet 9 SPRING 2017