THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 8 | SEPTEMBER 2024 Women in Law Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. Introduction By Retired Judge Stephanie K. Seymour IN 1898, LAURA LYKINS WAS THE ONLY WOMAN LAWYER IN INDIAN TERRITORY.1 In 1930, Grace Elmore Gibson was a lawyer and a part-time judge before she had the right to serve on a jury. By 2002, women made up approximately a quarter of the active Oklahoma bar.2 In the first century of women practicing law in Oklahoma, there were many advances, and we reached many milestones. It is important for us to look back and remember what these pioneering women accomplished so that we may learn from their vision and perseverance as well as appreciate their achievements. My young law clerks were often surprised to hear about what it was like in “the old days” – by which they meant, of course, the 1970s – and to contemplate a professional world in a reality so recent but so startlingly different from what they saw in their law school and law firm experiences at the beginning of the 21st century. It is important that new generations discover the past and remember that they are only in the middle, not at the end, of the journey begun by a handful of amazing women in the late 19th century. They must learn to emulate the women they will read about in this journal and to continue their work, for there are many battles yet to fight. This is not a new sentiment. In 1894, Susan B. Anthony wrote: We shall someday be heeded, and when we shall have our amendment, everybody will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedoms, all the enjoyments which women now possess always were hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon today has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.3 This journal tells a wonderful set of stories. They are the stories of Oklahoma women who fought for every single inch of ground we stand on today. These are women of character who made great strides in difficult times. For example, in Oklahoma Territory in 1890, a law was enacted that stated: “The husband is the head of the family. He may choose any reasonable place or mode of living and the wife must conform thereto.” Amazingly, this law is still on the books.4 Although a 1986 attorney general advisory opinion found the statute unconstitutional, and although it has come before the Oklahoma Supreme Court more than once, the law remains.5 When the Oklahoma Constitution passed, it was considered a very progressive one, but even so, it left many battles for the women of the state to fight. It was not until 1918 that State Question 97 passed by 25,000 votes, allowing women to vote. It was not until 1942 that a woman could hold state office. It was not until 1951 that Oklahoma afforded women the right to serve on juries. Only when federal law required it in 1974 did Oklahoma allow a wife to sue for loss of consortium. In 1924, Bertha Rembaugh wrote an essay on the topic of “Women in the Law” for the first issue of the New York University Law Review. She wrote: [I]s there a subject? Is there anything to say about women in the law, or women in relation to the practice of law, any more or different than there is to say of men in the law? One’s first and immediate reaction is, of course, that there is not; that the relation
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