Jill Norgren
Autor de Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President
Sobre El Autor
Jill Norgren is Professor Emerita of Political Science at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York. She is the author of several books, including Rebels at the Bar: The Fascinating Forgotten Stories of America's First Women Lawyers and Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who mostrar más Would Be President. mostrar menos
Obras de Jill Norgren
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1943-11-30
- Género
- female
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Educación
- University of Pennsylvania (BA)
University of Michigan (PhD) - Ocupaciones
- professor
biographer
political scientist
book reviewer
public speaker - Biografía breve
- Jill Norgren is professor emerita of Political Science and emerita member of the PhD program in Political Science at John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center. She received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD from the University of Michigan. She has taught courses on American politics, the legal treatment of subcultures in the USA, women and the law, and constitutional law. Prof. Norgren has written numerous scholarly journal articles and four books: Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President (2007); American Cultural Pluralism and Law (with Serena Nanda, 1988)); The Cherokee Cases: The Confrontation of Law and Politics (1996); and Partial Justice: Federal Indian Law in a Liberal-Constitutional System (with P.T. Shattuck, 1991). Her research and writing has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Bar Association, and the PSC-CUNY Research Award Program. She is a co-founder of, and researcher/writer for, the website www.herhatwasinthering.org, which focuses on women in the USA who ran for political office before 1920 (when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granted them the right to vote). Through mini-biographies and short historical essays, this site challenges the myth that women of that era did not involve themselves in electoral politics.
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Jill Norgren, in her upcoming book Rebels at the Bar, wants to shine a light on a forgotten corner of American history. While there are many woman law practitioners today, the mid-1800s saw the breaking of the barrier. America had come out of the Second Great Awakening with an interesting amount of education societies of which women were a large part. With newfound access to education (no thanks to men legislators and officials), they sought to work along side their male counterparts in many notable professions. This included the law. While lawyers were generally seen in the same way as we do today, well-meaning members of society thought the law to be a noble calling. Norgren’s book details the life and times of eight pioneering women in the field.
This book covers:
• Myra Bradwell—the first woman to be admitted to the Illinois bar. She founded the Chicago Legal News, a publication which compiled local and federal legal decisions.
• Lavinia Goodell—the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin.
• Belva Lockwood—the first woman attorney licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Clara Foltz—the first woman licensed to practice law in California.
• Mary Hall—the first woman admitted to the Connecticut bar, whose licensure led to the first judicial decision explicitly stating that women were permitted to practice law.
• Catharine McCulloch—the first woman appointed as a justice of the peace in Illinois. She was notable for conducting marriage ceremonies wherein the word “obey” was omitted from the woman’s vows.
• Lelia Robinson and Mary Greene—the first two women to be admitted to the Massachusetts bar.
While each woman led different lives, there are similar undercurrents in each of their tales. They had to fight against public opinion which held that women should stick to domestic jobs and that they could not handle the brutality of criminal court. They were almost always involved in suffrage and women’s rights movements and advocated that the inclusion of women into the legal sphere would invariably lead to a better field of practice.
Norgren’s biographies are tidy but laden with legal back-and-forth. While historically complete, they are not terribly exciting. That said, however, the tales still have much I found interesting. After reading about civil rights violations in the American South, their plight seemed eerily familiar. These women were seen as disrupting the social order, as headstrong ruffians with nothing better to do but become rabble-rousers. All they wanted was to be was seen as full-fledged members of American society with all the rights and privileges they were entitled to. Norgren was right: they were forgotten—but only for a while. A dense and enlightening book.… (más)
This book covers:
• Myra Bradwell—the first woman to be admitted to the Illinois bar. She founded the Chicago Legal News, a publication which compiled local and federal legal decisions.
• Lavinia Goodell—the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin.
• Belva Lockwood—the first woman attorney licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Clara Foltz—the first woman licensed to practice law in California.
• Mary Hall—the first woman admitted to the Connecticut bar, whose licensure led to the first judicial decision explicitly stating that women were permitted to practice law.
• Catharine McCulloch—the first woman appointed as a justice of the peace in Illinois. She was notable for conducting marriage ceremonies wherein the word “obey” was omitted from the woman’s vows.
• Lelia Robinson and Mary Greene—the first two women to be admitted to the Massachusetts bar.
While each woman led different lives, there are similar undercurrents in each of their tales. They had to fight against public opinion which held that women should stick to domestic jobs and that they could not handle the brutality of criminal court. They were almost always involved in suffrage and women’s rights movements and advocated that the inclusion of women into the legal sphere would invariably lead to a better field of practice.
Norgren’s biographies are tidy but laden with legal back-and-forth. While historically complete, they are not terribly exciting. That said, however, the tales still have much I found interesting. After reading about civil rights violations in the American South, their plight seemed eerily familiar. These women were seen as disrupting the social order, as headstrong ruffians with nothing better to do but become rabble-rousers. All they wanted was to be was seen as full-fledged members of American society with all the rights and privileges they were entitled to. Norgren was right: they were forgotten—but only for a while. A dense and enlightening book.… (más)
1 
NielsenGW | Mar 25, 2013 |
NielsenGW | Mar 25, 2013 | 
Book Review
Belva Lockwood
by Jill Norgren
Jill Norgren has quite a story to tell. Belva Lockwood (1830–1917) had to wage an arduous campaign just to get into law school and after completing the course she was refused a degree. An expert lobbyist who befriended influential congressmen, Lockwood marshaled her forces, eventually obtained her diploma, and then had to wage another battle to be admitted to the Washington, D.C., bar. And that was hardly the last public struggle for the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court and to conduct the first full campaign for the presidency.
In her new biography, "Belva Lockwood" (New York University Press, 311 pages, $35) Ms. Norgren, a legal historian, explains that she first learned of Lockwood while helping her daughter select books in the children's section at the public library. "I knew nothing about the woman or her accomplishments," Ms. Norgren writes, "virtually none of my university colleagues knew her name."
More biographers — more scholars — should read biographies intended for children, which can serve as a syncretic introduction to the biographical subject. It is shame that Ms. Norgren does not identify the biography she first put in her daughter's hands.
So why has Lockwood languished in biographical purdah? Ms. Norgren faults fashion: the appetite for biographies of "Founding Fathers and fighting generals." Well, sure, but other women of Lockwood's stature have attracted their fair share of biographers.
More to the point, Lockwood's niece, an amateur biographer, never completed the job. At the time, few libraries collected the papers of notable women, Ms. Norgren points out. And then Lockwood's closest surviving relative, a grandson, unforgivably sent her papers off to the Salvation Army as scrap paper that was later pulped.
Many biographers would balk at the paucity of archival sources. But Ms. Norgren persisted, calculating rightly that she would find important traces of Lockwood in others' papers. Lockwood also wrote about her life and published frequently. Newspapers covered her activities. As a practicing lawyer, she appears in all manner of other records, as well.
In Ms. Norgren's credible narrative, Lockwood emerges as a shrewd self-promoter, never hesitating to garner publicity for herself and her causes. After a brief first marriage and the birth of a daughter, Lockwood started on her public career. A second marriage to a much older man was agreeable but also strategic, for Lockwood did not hesitate to use her husband's business contacts to corral her own clients. Nellie Bly, the New York World's "daredevil girl reporter," pronounced Lockwood a worthy presidential candidate, calling her a "womanly woman … intelligent without being manly … the beau ideal of a woman with a brain."
In eloquent detail, Ms. Norgren shows how Lockwood loved the law. As a solo practitioner, she went after all sorts of cases: civil actions, divorces, and criminal trials. Lockwood ventured into other states acting on behalf of clients, and she helped to set up networks of female lawyers who could help one another.
When Ms. Norgren falters, it is hardly her fault. With so much private correspondence missing, it is difficult to picture the private Lockwood. In more intimate settings, was she always able to put on such a brave face? Was she really so unruffled by male chauvinism?
Ms. Norgren could make a little more of Lockwood's personality. An amusing episode, for example, shows Lockwood in motion, deflecting the sort of criticism that made other feminists fume. In 1881, to get to her appointments quickly, Lockwood adopted the then exclusively male practice of riding a large tricycle on the streets of Washington, D.C. The press attacked this unladylike behavior, lampooning it in cartoons and even speculating that it might ruin the "feminine organs of matrimonial necessity."
While certain feminists like Susan B. Anthony made an ideological issue out of the controversy, proclaiming the bicycle an instrument of female emancipation, Lockwood composed a poem:
A simple home woman, who only had thought
To lighten the labors her business had wrought.
And make a machine serve the purpose of feet.
And at the same time keep her dress from the street.
Ms. Norgren calls this ditty "light-hearted," an expression of Lockwood's amusement at the hullabaloo. So it is, but it also demonstrates how Lockwood got ahead, making her vehicle seem like the natural extension of a successful woman's work, while also reminding readers of the alternately muddy and dusty streets of the capital that made it difficult to preserve ladylike behavior.
This episode would be a good way to begin a Lockwood biography — one perhaps a children's biographer could use as a means of amplifying Ms. Norgren's sober-sided book.
crollyson@nysun.com… (más)
Belva Lockwood
by Jill Norgren
Jill Norgren has quite a story to tell. Belva Lockwood (1830–1917) had to wage an arduous campaign just to get into law school and after completing the course she was refused a degree. An expert lobbyist who befriended influential congressmen, Lockwood marshaled her forces, eventually obtained her diploma, and then had to wage another battle to be admitted to the Washington, D.C., bar. And that was hardly the last public struggle for the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court and to conduct the first full campaign for the presidency.
In her new biography, "Belva Lockwood" (New York University Press, 311 pages, $35) Ms. Norgren, a legal historian, explains that she first learned of Lockwood while helping her daughter select books in the children's section at the public library. "I knew nothing about the woman or her accomplishments," Ms. Norgren writes, "virtually none of my university colleagues knew her name."
More biographers — more scholars — should read biographies intended for children, which can serve as a syncretic introduction to the biographical subject. It is shame that Ms. Norgren does not identify the biography she first put in her daughter's hands.
So why has Lockwood languished in biographical purdah? Ms. Norgren faults fashion: the appetite for biographies of "Founding Fathers and fighting generals." Well, sure, but other women of Lockwood's stature have attracted their fair share of biographers.
More to the point, Lockwood's niece, an amateur biographer, never completed the job. At the time, few libraries collected the papers of notable women, Ms. Norgren points out. And then Lockwood's closest surviving relative, a grandson, unforgivably sent her papers off to the Salvation Army as scrap paper that was later pulped.
Many biographers would balk at the paucity of archival sources. But Ms. Norgren persisted, calculating rightly that she would find important traces of Lockwood in others' papers. Lockwood also wrote about her life and published frequently. Newspapers covered her activities. As a practicing lawyer, she appears in all manner of other records, as well.
In Ms. Norgren's credible narrative, Lockwood emerges as a shrewd self-promoter, never hesitating to garner publicity for herself and her causes. After a brief first marriage and the birth of a daughter, Lockwood started on her public career. A second marriage to a much older man was agreeable but also strategic, for Lockwood did not hesitate to use her husband's business contacts to corral her own clients. Nellie Bly, the New York World's "daredevil girl reporter," pronounced Lockwood a worthy presidential candidate, calling her a "womanly woman … intelligent without being manly … the beau ideal of a woman with a brain."
In eloquent detail, Ms. Norgren shows how Lockwood loved the law. As a solo practitioner, she went after all sorts of cases: civil actions, divorces, and criminal trials. Lockwood ventured into other states acting on behalf of clients, and she helped to set up networks of female lawyers who could help one another.
When Ms. Norgren falters, it is hardly her fault. With so much private correspondence missing, it is difficult to picture the private Lockwood. In more intimate settings, was she always able to put on such a brave face? Was she really so unruffled by male chauvinism?
Ms. Norgren could make a little more of Lockwood's personality. An amusing episode, for example, shows Lockwood in motion, deflecting the sort of criticism that made other feminists fume. In 1881, to get to her appointments quickly, Lockwood adopted the then exclusively male practice of riding a large tricycle on the streets of Washington, D.C. The press attacked this unladylike behavior, lampooning it in cartoons and even speculating that it might ruin the "feminine organs of matrimonial necessity."
While certain feminists like Susan B. Anthony made an ideological issue out of the controversy, proclaiming the bicycle an instrument of female emancipation, Lockwood composed a poem:
A simple home woman, who only had thought
To lighten the labors her business had wrought.
And make a machine serve the purpose of feet.
And at the same time keep her dress from the street.
Ms. Norgren calls this ditty "light-hearted," an expression of Lockwood's amusement at the hullabaloo. So it is, but it also demonstrates how Lockwood got ahead, making her vehicle seem like the natural extension of a successful woman's work, while also reminding readers of the alternately muddy and dusty streets of the capital that made it difficult to preserve ladylike behavior.
This episode would be a good way to begin a Lockwood biography — one perhaps a children's biographer could use as a means of amplifying Ms. Norgren's sober-sided book.
crollyson@nysun.com… (más)
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SUMMARY
The Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers tells the thought-provoking stories of several generations of women lawyers who, with their insistence on equal treatment, helped to create a new dynamic in the field of law. After World War II, changes in U.S. public policy along with the second women’s movement altered longstanding resistance to female participation in the law profession. This book captures the experiences of 100 women lawyers who challenged the rules and fought for access to law schools and meaningful legal careers. It draws on a unique set of oral histories gathered by the American Bar Association’s, Women Trailblazer Project. One hundred outstanding senior women lawyers were asked to recount their personal and professional histories in interviews. The women chosen were selected on the basis of their accomplishments in the post World War II period. The woman who were interviewed have had careers at private law firm’s; government agencies; state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States; Congress; law schools; and public interest legal organizations. The oldest interviewee was born in 1916, the youngest in 1951, with the majority born in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Stories from Trailblazing Women aptly describes the societal values in the decade after WWII, and the astounding lengths men would go, to keep women out of the legal profession. The stories are sometimes painful, sometimes funny, but very inspirational. They highlight what women did, and what they had to do, in order to become lawyers. And when they entered the profession, the Trailblazers succeeded with brilliance.
Neither law firm‘s nor most government institutions hired female attorneys. The thinking at law schools, therefore, was simple: why train women as lawyers if nobody will hire them? Why use a precious place for a woman that could be given to a man?”
“Harvard Law School did not even open its law school to women until 1950. By 1961 the number of women admitted at Harvard had worked its way up to twenty in a class that also included 540 men.“
REVIEW
Norgren had a daunting job in front of her when she was handed the oral interviews from these 100 women, with each interviewee transcript numbering hundreds of pages long. She has done a superb job at capsulizing an immense amount of information and organizing it in a coherent manner. She begins her recounting of these stories by starting with the childhood influences that supported or discouraged the aspirations of these women and the motivations that drew them to the law profession. Stories about the difficulties in gaining admission to and treatment at law schools were followed by the women’s experiences as they began or attempted to begin their job search. Norgren then explores the work experiences of these trailblazing women and she highlights specific stories of women in private practice, public interest, government and the judiciary.
The stories were amazing and moving. The resilience and fortitude exhibited by these women is inspiring. Norgren is a consummate storyteller and the book was immensely satisfying. She skillfully showcased a multitude of astounding women and the battles that had to be fought in an effort to secure their dreams. This book should be essential reading for all women attorneys, and women considering the field of law, so they understand the challenges that have preceded them.
Jill Norgren is a Professor Emerita of government and legal studies at John Jay College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, where she taught government, law and society, and women’s studies for thirty years. This is the third book she has written about women lawyers in the U.S.
Thanks to NetGalley and New York University Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Publication Date May 22, 2018.
“I sent you a letter asking you to join the chief executives organization, but we didn’t realize you were a woman. And we don’t have any women—and we have to withdraw that offer…… But we understand that your assistant is a man and he can join.… (más)