The first female judge in United States history was Esther Hobart Morris, appointed justice of the peace in South Pass City, Wyoming Territory, in 1870. From that single appointment in a mining town of fewer than 10,000 residents, women moved onto trial benches, state supreme courts, federal appellate courts, and eventually the United States Supreme Court. The first female judges in US history were not a single generation but a chain of individual breakthroughs stretching from 1870 to 2022, each one opening a different door.
Esther Hobart Morris, 1870
Wyoming Territory passed the country’s first women’s suffrage law in December 1869. Months later, Esther Hobart Morris was appointed justice of the peace in South Pass City, presiding over minor civil and criminal matters. She served roughly eight months. Her tenure was short, but it was the first time any woman in the United States held judicial office, and it drew national attention as a signal of what a willing jurisdiction could do.
Arabella Mansfield and the Precondition for the Bench
No woman could become a judge until women could practice law. On June 15, 1869, Arabella Mansfield took the bar examination in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and became the first woman admitted to a state bar in the United States. The Iowa statute at the time limited bar admission to white men, but the examining judge relied on a separate provision allowing words referring to men to be extended to women and recommended her admission.1Library of Congress. Arabella Mansfield, First Female Lawyer Many state bars continued citing common-law tradition to exclude women well into the late 1800s, and some women had to challenge licensing rules through litigation or legislation before being allowed to practice at all.
Florence Ellinwood Allen’s String of Firsts
Florence Ellinwood Allen stacked up more judicial firsts than any other woman of her era. In 1919 she was appointed assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the first woman anywhere in the country to hold that position. A year later she won election to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, becoming the first woman elected to a court of general jurisdiction in the United States.2National Park Service. Judge Florence Allen Biography
On November 7, 1922, Allen won a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, becoming the first woman elected to the highest court in any state.3Supreme Court of Ohio. Florence Ellinwood Allen She ran as a nonpartisan candidate, declining the backing of either major party and using the petition method to place her name on the statewide ballot.
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Allen to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the Senate confirmed her. That made her the first woman to serve as an Article III federal judge, holding a lifetime appointment under the part of the Constitution that establishes the federal judiciary’s power.4U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Florence Ellinwood Allen She served on that court for decades and was reportedly considered for the Supreme Court, though the nomination never materialized.
Genevieve Rose Cline, the First Woman on the Federal Bench
Allen reached the federal appellate courts in 1934, but another woman had already crossed the federal line six years earlier. In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge nominated Genevieve Rose Cline to the United States Customs Court, and the Senate confirmed her on May 25 of that year.5Federal Judicial Center. Cline, Genevieve Rose Cline became the first woman to serve as a federal judge in the United States.
The two firsts are not duplicates. The Customs Court was originally an Article I court, meaning Congress created it to handle a specialized subject rather than the broad judicial power outlined in Article III. Cline reviewed disputes over tariff classifications and the duties owed on imported goods. Allen’s Sixth Circuit seat, by contrast, carried full Article III protections for tenure and salary. Both were genuine firsts in different corners of the federal system.
Cline came to the bench with directly relevant experience, having worked as an appraiser of merchandise for the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1922 to 1928 while maintaining a private legal practice in Cleveland.5Federal Judicial Center. Cline, Genevieve Rose She served on the Customs Court for twenty-five years.6United States Courts. Women as Way Pavers in the Federal Judiciary
Sandra Day O’Connor and the Supreme Court
On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to the United States Supreme Court, fulfilling a campaign promise to appoint the first woman to the nation’s highest bench.7Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor To Be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States The nomination filled the vacancy left by Justice Potter Stewart’s retirement. The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings in September 1981, and on September 21 the full Senate voted 99–0 to confirm her.8Congress.gov. PN586 – Sandra Day O’Connor – Supreme Court of the United States Four days later, Chief Justice Warren Burger administered the judicial oath, and she took her seat.9Supreme Court of the United States. Sandra Day O’Connor – First Woman on the Supreme Court
O’Connor served for nearly twenty-five years before retiring on January 31, 2006.10Supreme Court of the United States. Sandra Day O’Connor – First Woman on the Supreme Court She became one of the most influential swing votes in the Court’s modern history. In New York v. United States (1992), she wrote the majority opinion limiting Congress’s ability to force states to implement federal regulatory programs. In Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), she authored the 5–4 opinion upholding the consideration of race as one factor in university admissions. And in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), she co-authored a joint opinion that reshaped the legal standard governing abortion regulations. Three of the most contested areas of constitutional law, three decisive votes.
Pioneering Women of Color
The milestones above were achieved by white women. Women of color faced additional barriers and reached the bench on a longer timeline.
In 1939, Jane Bolin was sworn in as a judge of the Domestic Relations Court in New York City, becoming the first Black woman to serve as a judge in the United States. She spent decades on the family court bench, focusing on how the legal system treated children and families, at a time when very few Black lawyers of any gender held judicial positions anywhere in the country.
Constance Baker Motley broke through at the federal level. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, making her the first Black woman to serve on the federal bench. Before joining the judiciary, Motley had argued ten cases before the Supreme Court as a civil rights attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, winning nine of them.
The Supreme Court took longer. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic justice and the first woman of color on the Court, nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate on August 6 of that year by a vote of 68–31. In 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate. Each appointment widened the range of lived experience on a bench that had been exclusively white and male for nearly two centuries.