Arabella Mansfield becomes the first female lawyer…

Arabella Mansfield becomes the first female lawyer in the United States when she is admitted to the Iowa bar in 1869.

Mansfield (May 23, 1846 – August 1, 1911), née Belle Aurelia Babb, a native of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, had been allowed to take the bar exam and passed with high scores, despite a state law restricting applicants to white males over  twenty-one.

Shortly after Mansfield passes the exam, Iowa amends its bar licensing statute and becomes the first state to allow women and minorities into its bar, with the Court ruling that women may not be denied the right to practice law in Iowa.