Belle Bortin Ruppa
1920
(1898-1981)
Belle Bortin Ruppa overcame a difficult, poverty-defined childhood.
After her father abandoned the family, her brother Herman, three years
Belle's senior, left school at the age of 13 to help support the family.
Their mother also worked outside the home to help make ends meet. There
were five children, and as the eldest daughter, Belle took on many
parental responsibilities as a pre-teen. 
Belle Bortin graduated from North Division High School in Milwaukee and entered Marquette University in 1917. With considerable fanfare from the press, Belle passed her Wisconsin bar exam in 1920. Not only was she one of the few women to enter the legal profession that year, at the age of 22 she was the youngest woman ever to pass the bar in Wisconsin.
Upon graduation from Marquette, she was quoted in a local newspaper as saying, "My ambition is to become the head of a legal aid society for women. ... My admittance to the bar is due to perseverance and being able to accomplish what I set out to do."
She started out in private practice as a criminal defense lawyer. In 1920, after Women's Suffrage in the State of Wisconsin, Belle became the first woman to run for an elected office in Wisconsin. Running on the Republican ticket, she made an unsuccessful bid to represent the Sixth District as a state senator.
In 1927, as "the Chairman of the National Women's Party and attorney handling Wisconsin's new fight for equal rights," Belle published an article about women's rights in Wisconsin. In 1930 she was the "state chairman of the Equal Rights International, a feminist organization seeking 'equality for women.'"
In 1921 Belle married attorney John Ruppa. After the birth of her son Rex in 1922, she took a year off from her law career. In 1923 Belle Bortin Ruppa returned to the courtroom, practicing law with her husband until they both retired in 1950. She died in 1981.
Highlights
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