Finding Justice: A History of Women Lawyers in Maryland since 1642 ed. by Lynne A. Battaglia (review)

With its eye-catching design and elegant package of paper, type, and illustrations, Finding Justice: A History of Women Lawyers in Maryland since 1642 at first glance appears to be just another coffee-table book. A closer look convinced me otherwise. Far from being merely pretty and fluffy, the book is actually a substantial, engaging work of original scholarship, deserving of the attention of students of the law, women, and the Old Line State.

Finding Justice took shape after a small group of women Maryland jurists and scholars sought answers to two questions: first, "What is the history of female lawyers in Maryland?," and second, "What substantive changes in law and society can be attributed to Maryland's women in law?" (p. 25). Support from the Maryland Women's Bar Association underwrote their search of letters, diaries, court records, newspapers, photographs, handbills, law school catalogs, oral histories, and secondary sources. The answers are narrated in seven chapters and four appendixes that focus on certain women at particular moments in Maryland history.

Lynne A. Battaglia uses the foreword to explain how she and her colleagues persistently wore down the obstacles that blocked their goals. The introduction presents a compelling argument for the importance of Maryland's women lawyers, who, as Julie R. Rubin rightly argues, played vital roles in influencing the evolution of the state's law and society. The first three chapters, by Battaglia, Michelle R. Mitchell, and Jane C. Murphy, consider the period 1642–1920. Battaglia carries the story forward to the 1940s in chapter 4, and in chapter 5, Phoebe A. Haddon focuses on African American women lawyers between the 1940s and 1970s. Next, Diane O. Leasure's chapter focuses on the significance of mentoring for women lawyers. Chapter 7 contains selections from oral histories of forty-eight women lawyers that were recorded in 2012 and 2013. One of the appendixes lists the almost 25,000 women admitted to the Maryland bar between 1902 and 2014.

These women were of similar backgrounds. Multiple roadblocks stood in the way of their legal careers. Some reflected societal mores, some were mean-spirited, and some were laughably silly, but they were barriers nonetheless. All the women faced these obstacles with unyielding persistence and cleverness. Denied admission to standing state and local bar associations, they formed their own organizations, even as they pressed for entry into the all-male organizations. One by one, barriers gave way, and in 1946, the Maryland State Bar Association began accepting women as members.

Books with multiple authors vary greatly in the quality of their composition and writing, but this one is an exception. Its chapters bespeak a thoughtful enlistment of authors and Battaglia's editorial guidance. Each is cast in plain, approachable English prose that is devoid of legalese or social science jargon. Linked closely to the major themes of the book, chapter narratives develop fluidly, and the combination of images with words is an added strength that makes for absorbing reading. As scholarship, Finding Justice breaks paths into a neglected field of Maryland history, and its approach can be applied to the study of women in the law in other states.