Women of “Sense and Steel”

In an article for Res Gestae, the Indiana State Bar Association’s member magazine, pro bono counsel Monica Fennell highlighted women attorneys in Indiana and across the country and their continuing efforts to cement their important role in the legal field.

Fennell chronicles the journeys of several leading women attorneys, from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush, and their groundbreaking work paving the way for other women in their legal careers. In one example, Fennell notes that former Putnam County Judge Diana LaViolette developed a family court facilitation project that provides alternative dispute resolution for low-income families, which has since been replicated in several other states. Fennell also discusses Belva Ann Lockwood, whose applications to law school were initially “denied on the grounds that her presence would be too distracting to the young men in the law school.” Eventually, Fennell notes, Lockwood went on to become the first woman barred to the United States Supreme Court.

“Justice Ginsburg called Lockwood a ‘woman of sense and steel,’” Fennell writes. “That is also an apt description of LaViolette and many other women lawyers. Justice Ginsburg was a trailblazer not only because of her position on the U.S. Supreme Court but also because she was responsible for legal strategies that established women’s rights in many areas.”