State Bar of Wisconsin

Wisconsin's Legal History: Part XV

Women at the Bar in the 20th Century

The history of Wisconsin women lawyers in the 19th century consists of the efforts of Lavinia Goodell and a few other pioneers to overcome de jure discrimination and exclusion. The history of women lawyers in the 20th century can be written largely in terms of statistics and of efforts to win de facto acceptance and equality.

Women formed a very small part of the Wisconsin bar until the mid-1960s. Up to that time, with very few exceptions, they were merely tolerated and were not seriously considered for leading jobs and positions in the law. In the mid-1960s, largely as an offshoot of heightened attention to women's civil rights, law schools began to increase the proportion of women in their classes. A few years later, the proportion of women lawyers in the bar began to increase correspondingly. The proportion of women lawyers occupying elite jobs within the profession has increased more slowly.

Wisconsin had no women judges until 1970, when Olga Bennett of Viroqua was elected judge of the Vernon County Circuit Court. In 1978-79 several additional women circuit judges were elected and appointed. As of this writing, 25 out of 230 circuit judges in Wisconsin are women; they are concentrated primarily, but not exclusively, in urban counties. In 1976 Shirley Abrahamson was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court; she was joined by Janine Geske in 1993 and by Ann Walsh Bradley in 1995. Martha Bablitch was elected to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals when it was established in 1978 and served until 1985; Margaret Vergeront has served on the court since 1994. Barbara Crabb has served as a federal judge for the Western District of Wisconsin since 1979. It is a fairly safe bet that the number of women judges in Wisconsin will continue to increase in coming years.

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