In Massachusetts, where properly qualified 'persons' were allowed to practice law, the Supreme Court decided that a woman was not a 'person,' and a special act of the legislature had to be passed before Miss Lelia Robinson could be admitted to the bar. But today women are lawyers.
"The Progress of Fifty Years". Speech at the Congress of Women at the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair), Chicago, Illinois, 1893.
