MYRA BRADWELL SOCIETY
The Myra Bradwell Society is our major gifts program
Annual membership in the Myra Bradwell Society sustains the work of the Women’s Law Project. Through their generosity and a shared vision of equality, Bradwell Society members support and enhance our ability to defend and advance women’s rights in critical areas of reproductive freedom, sexual and domestic violence against women, sex and gender discrimination in schools, the workplace and sports field, and economic justice.
Myra Bradwell Society contribution levels:
- Chief Justice $25,000 and above
- Justice $10,000 – $24,999
- Associate Justice $5,000 – $9,999
- Judge $2,500 – $4,999
- Counsel $1,000 – $2,499
This society is named for Myra Bradwell, the first woman to practice law in the United States. In 1869, Bradwell passed the test for admission to the Chicago bar. The Illinois Supreme Court, however, denied her admission. Bradwell took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the Illinois decision on the basis that being female made her unfit to practice law. As she continued to fight this discrimination, Bradwell started publishing the Chicago Legal News, and in its pages she advocated for women’s suffrage and feminist progress. In 1892, the Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision, and Bradwell was admitted to the bar.
“Women today are accorded a wider variety of freedoms than was Ms. Bradwell,” said Carol Tracy, Executive Director of the Women’s Law Project, “but at the Women’s Law Project, we see the harmful and hurtful ways that women are still abused, held back, and denied equality in employment, sports, health care, and the courts. We are proud to be a part of the noble tradition of feminist lawyers pursuing equality for women.”
For more information about donating to the Women’s Law Project or the Myra Bradwell Society, please contact Jennifer Nix at 215-928-5766 or jnix@womenslawproject.org.
