Abstract
We began at the beginning. The opening talk of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law’s Spring 2003 symposium “Why a Feminist Law Journal?” detailed the career of Myra Bradwell, legal publisher and icon of American women lawyers.
Bradwell famously and unsuccessfully appealed to the United States Supreme Court when Illinois refused to admit her to the bar. Undaunted, she pursued a thriving career as the publisher of the Chicago Legal News, a mainstream law journal in which she championed suffrage and equal rights for women. Richard Chused, in concluding his remarks on Bradwell’s use of her newspaper to espouse her lifelong feminist commitment, challenged the staff of this journal to make our work count: “Though you stand on Myra Bradwell’s shoulders, the purpose of your voice is not as clear as hers.”