Women’s History Month 2023 — Women of the Bench and Bar

Published in

walawlibrary

5 min readMar 17, 2023

Five justices of the Washington State Supreme Court sit side by side on chairs while four more stand behind them. They are wearing their black robes and are positioned in front of the ornate wooden doors of the court room at the Temple of Justice. — Seven women and two men currently sit on the Washington State Supreme Court Bench.

Each year since 1981 the month of March has been designated as “Women’s History Month” — a month to “celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.” In this year’s executive proclamation, President Joe Biden states:

The full participation of women is a foundational tenet of democracy. Women — often women of color — have been on the frontlines, fighting for and securing equal rights and opportunity throughout our country’s history as abolitionists, civil rights leaders, suffragists, and labor activists. Women continue to lead as advocates for reproductive rights, champions of racial justice, and LGBTQI+ equality. Throughout history, these women have opened the doors of opportunity for subsequent generations of dreamers and doers.

In the legal profession, more and more women are walking the trails that have been blazed by those who have gone before them. The American Bar Association reported last year that 38% of all lawyers were women. In 2021 12,800 more women than men were attending law school. And nearly one third of all federal judges in the United States are now women. This past year witnessed one of the biggest moments for women in the legal profession — the confirmation of the first Black woman as Supreme Court Justice. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in on June 30th, 2022. In February 2023 Justice Jackson issued her first majority opinion.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson looks at the camera and smiles. She wears a black robe, glasses, and a beaded necklace. — Official portrait of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Women on the Supreme Court Bench are names easily recognized: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, The Notorious RBG, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. But what about those trailblazers? Who are some of the female “hidden figures” in the legal profession?

Not long after Washington officially became a state, a young woman named Reah Whitehead graduated from the University of Washington School of Law. She would go on to become what some consider to be Washington State’s first female lawyer. In 1909 she became Washington’s first prosecutor, serving as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in King County. In 1914 following a campaign run by her mother, Ms. Whitehead became the state’s first female justice of the peace (although Mildred Henthorne [Henthorn] of Vancouver did step in for a few days to serve as justice of the peace in 1911). Whitehead served in that position in King County until 1941.

Further south in Olympia, Julia Waldrop Ker studied law books after tucking her children into bed at night. Ker is considered to be Olympia’s first female lawyer. When she was appointed as the police court judge and justice of the peace in Washington’s capitol city in 1925, she was the only woman serving in the position in a capitol city in the United States. Her last office building sat in the current location of the Helen Sommers Building near the capitol campus.

Jane Bolin looks into the camera while sitting at her judge’s bench or a desk. She is wearing a patterned blouse and holds pen in hand. Papers and a gavel lay on the bench. — Jane Bolin. First African American female judge in the United States.

Across the country, on July 22, 1939, Jane Bolin was sworn in as judge of New York’s Family Court by New York Mayor LaGuardia at a surprise ceremony at the World’s Fair. Judge Bolin was the first African American female judge in the United States. In 1931 she was the first African American woman to graduate from Yale Law School. “During the earliest years of her judicial career, Bolin challenged discrimination, such as the practice of only assigning probation officers to supervise probationers of their same race. She also collaborated with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in an effort to reduce juvenile crime rates among boys.”

Other historic moments for women in the legal profession in Washington and beyond:

· Washington State was the first state to codify jury service for women. The law also stated that women could be excused from jury duty for…being a woman.

· In 1975 Miriam Naveira Merly of Puerto Rico became the first Latina to argue before the US Supreme Court. The following year, Vilma Martinez became the first Mexican-American to do so. Martinez was part of the legal team that represented the petitioner in the landmark case Griggs v. Duke Power Company.

· When she was elected to the Alameda County (CA) Superior Court in 2010, Judge Victoria Kolakowski became the first and only openly transgender judge in the United States.

· In 2021 attorney Tana Lin was confirmed to the federal bench in Seattle, making her the first Asian American federal judge in Washington State.

· In 2013 the Washington State Supreme Court became a female supermajority. In 2020, with the appointment of Justice G. Helen Whitener, the Supreme Court became the most diverse court in the country.

· The Washington State Supreme Court has sworn in not one, but two women as Clerk — Susan Carlson and Erin Lennon. Joan Smith Lawrence was the first woman to serve as Supreme Court Commissioner. And earlier this year, Deputy Bailiff Tracy Foster became the first woman to gavel in the Supreme Court.