ABSTRACT
The widely held view of women as naturally inferior to men greatly influenced their status in the law. The common law of England held that an unmarried woman could own property, make a contract, and sue or be sued in court. An aspiring lawyer, James Bradwell had worked his way through part of the curriculum at Knox College. In early 1868 Myra established a newspaper, the Chicago Legal News. Within two years the paper was carrying more advertisements than any legal newspaper in the country, and had developed a reputation for clear writing and perceptive analysis. Bradwell could not, of course, argue her own case before the Supreme Court, since women were, at the time, also excluded from admission to the Court's bar. On April 14, 1873, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Slaughterhouse Cases, and there gave its first judicial interpretation of the meaning of the privileges and immunities clause.
