Myra Bradwell born on February 12, 1831 in Manchester, Verrmont was an American lawyer who became involved in a multitude of court cases regarding the legal rights of women.
In 1852 as Myra was working as a school teacher, she married an English immigrant, James Bolesworth Bradwell who was then studying law. In 1855, James was admitted to the Illinois bar, serving as judge of Cook County Court from the years 1861 to 1869. Initially with the purpose of aiding her husband with his work, Mrs. Bradwell began to study law both on her own as well as under the direction of her husband. Her motive later metamorphisized into studying in order to qualify herself to work in the field. Through this, Mrs. Bradwell displayed both a keen analytical capability and an innate gift for incisive legal research.
While Arrabella Mansfield's admission to the bar was a revolutionary moment in American legal history for women,
in the same year political activist from Illinois Myra Bradwell was declined by the state from taking the bar. Due to her marital status and because she was a woman, the reform activist was denied the examination, therefore, a license to practice law. As a response, Bradwell appealed her case to the supreme court which denied her claim by an eight to one vote. (Bradwell v. Illinois 83 US 130 [1873].) This demonstrates that although women were gradually gaining more positions within the legal field, the battle of including or even allowing women to fulfill their passions in practicing law was nowhere near over. Even today, the US legal system's bias toward predominantly white cisgender male citizens is prevalent through the pay gap of newly graduated law students. In the last 10 years, the salary of male law students has consistently been greater than women in the same field or sector, signifying how this issue has been persistent across centuries.