https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/ en https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/california-judicial-center-library-exhibition-honors-impactful-women-states-legal-history California Judicial Center Library Exhibition Honors Impactful Women in State’s Legal HistoryKaren.Datangel Mon, 03/02/2026 - 15:43 Feature The California Judicial Center Library’s latest exhibition is a celebration of California women in law, including trailblazing judicial officers at all court levels. Resolute and Resilient: Celebrating 175 Years of California Women and the Law features illustrated panels and primary source materials such as photographs and artifacts celebrating California women’s contributions to the law and honoring the state’s pioneering women attorneys, judges, and justices.     The timeline of the exhibition begins in 1848 as Mexico ceded 55% of its territory to the United States. The Gold Rush in California began earlier that year and disproportionately affected Native American and Mexican women. Some of these women were the first to impact state law as litigants and activists, such as Mexican American novelist María Ruiz de Burton, who fought to defend her land holdings in Baja California and San Diego County in Mexican and U.S. courts for more than two decades. In the 1850s and 1860s, women like Mary Ellen Pleasant became known for their abolitionism and started an early civil rights movement. The exhibition then focuses on the women’s suffrage movement in California, led by Clara Shortridge Foltz and Laura de Force Gordon, who also became the state’s first women lawyers. Georgia Bullock and Annette Abbott Adams became the first women judges in the state. Many other “firsts” amongst women attorneys are also featured in the exhibition, such as Abby Abinanti, who was the first Native American woman to practice law in California and currently serves as Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribal Court.     Women of the state judiciary in the 1960s and 1970s broke both gender and race barriers, including Presiding Justice Vaino Spencer as the first African-American woman judge; Judge Frances Muñoz as the first Latina judge; and Chief Justice Rose Bird as the first woman to serve full-time on the California Supreme Court. Since Chief Justice Bird’s historic tenure, eight other women have served on the state’s highest court, including four that serve today: Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, Justice Carol Corrigan, Justice Leondra Kruger, and Justice Kelli Evans. The exhibition is on display now till the end of March 2026 in the Archives Room on the first floor of the Ronald M. George State Office Complex in San Francisco. An accompanying digital exhibition booklet is also available. This article was originally published on March 14, 2025 and has been updated. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/santa-clara-court-connects-mentors-youth-womens-history-month-event Santa Clara Court Connects Mentors to Youth for Women’s History Month EventKaren.Datangel Thu, 04/03/2025 - 14:22 Feature The following originally appeared as a post from Judge Julia Alloggiamento (Santa Clara Superior Court) on LinkedIn.  More than 80 eager students in grades 8-12 filled the room to engage in intimate discussions with two dozen judges, attorneys, probation officers, local leaders, and other volunteer mentors about their challenges and successes at the 2025 Young Women’s Power Lunch, hosted by the Santa Clara Superior Court Outreach Committee. At the beginning of the program, I explained to the students that empowerment is not about competition, but collaboration. I truly believe that women are always better off when they support each other and lift each other up -- and that is what the entire day was about. After small group discussions, several young students got in front of a room of more than 100 people to share their stories and thank the mentors. They were poised, eloquent, and inspirational. To close the event, the young women were treated to a keynote address from Judge Shelyna V. Brown (Ret.), who spoke to them not as her current self, but as her teen self who envisioned the successful woman she is today and then figured out how to get there. I have no doubt that every young woman in that room took her words to heart and left the event knowing that if they can dream it, they can do it. I know that this program was successful because of the many women who collaborated to make the dream a reality, especially Desiree Escobar, Rose Luerra, Cassandra Staff, Alisha Beltramo Schoen, Corina Herrera-Loera, and most of all, my dear friend and colleague Judge Kelley Paul, who spent countless hours recruiting mentors, attending planning meetings, and hammering out details with me. Judge Paul also candidly shared her own past struggles with the young women to demonstrate that every woman in that room had the strength and resilience to overcome any hardship and still reach their goals. I am also extremely grateful for the support of the Office of Women's Policy who sponsored the delicious lunch and the California Judges Foundation for providing additional support.  The Young Women’s Power Lunch is truly one of my favorite events, not only because of the young women we serve on that day, but because it creates an amazing bonding experience also for the judges, attorneys, and adult women who participate. If you are an educator and are interested in this program or our other court outreach programs, please go to Court and Community for more information, or email events@scscourt.org. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/womens-history-month-celebrating-first-female-judicial-officers-california Women's History Month: Celebrating the First Female Judicial Officers in CaliforniaKaren.Datangel Mon, 03/03/2025 - 15:48 Feature In our first Women's History Month feature, read profiles of four women who helped advance equality in the state of California. The state judicial branch's strategic plan includes the goal of Access, Fairness, Diversity, and Inclusion, where "The makeup of California's judicial branch will reflect the diversity of the state's residents." According to the Judicial Council's latest annual judicial demographics report, reality continues to move toward that goal. As of Dec. 31, 2024, more than 43% of California's justices and judges are women, a 2 percentage point increase over the prior year and an increase of more than 15 percentage points since 2006. Here's a quick look at the female judicial officers who helped continue that movement by shattering the glass ceiling at every level of the California judicial branch. Judge Georgia Bullock Georgia Bullock earned her law degree from the University of Southern California in 1914. During law school, she founded and participated in groups encouraging women's involvement in public office and policy. After law school, Bullock served as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles in 1917 and was the first female member of the Los Angeles Bar Association. She also volunteered as a juvenile probation officer and with the Women's Court, a division of the police court that prosecuted female defendants. Bullock became a judge for the Women's Court in 1924, and later served as a Los Angeles municipal court judge. In 1931, she was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor James Rolph Jr. Bullock served on that court for 25 years. Justice Annette Abbott Adams Annette Abbott Adams became the first female justice in California in 1942 when she was appointed presiding justice of the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, by then-Governor Culbert Olson. She was also the first woman to serve on the California Supreme Court bench as a pro tempore judge.  Adams' appointment to the state appellate court is just one of the many firsts she achieved in her lifetime. She was also one of the first women to graduate from the University of California with a law degree and the first female Assistant Attorney General of the United States. Chief Justice Rose Bird Rose Bird was the first woman appointed as a justice of the California Supreme Court and the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of California, and chair of the Judicial Council, serving in that role from 1977-1987. Before her appointment to the bench: in 1965, she became the first female law clerk on the Nevada Supreme Court; in 1966, she was the first female deputy public defender hired in Santa Clara County; and in 1975, then-Governor Jerry Brown selected her as his Secretary of Agriculture, the first woman in the state to hold cabinet rank. This feature was originally published on March 8, 2024 and has been updated with current data. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/womens-history-month-recognizing-suffragettes-california Women's History Month: Recognizing the Suffragettes of CaliforniaKaren.Datangel Mon, 03/04/2024 - 17:58 Feature Read our second Women's History Month feature on the female judicial officers that broke barriers in California. This month, California courts and the Judicial Council of California join the nation in recognizing Women's History Month. In this feature, we pay tribute to suffragettes in the legal field who helped advance women's rights in California. Several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution – guaranteeing women the right to vote. In an upcoming feature, we commemorate the female judicial officers who have contributed to progress in the judicial branch. Clara Foltz Clara Shortridge Foltz became the first female lawyer in California after authoring the Woman Lawyer’s Bill, amending California law to allow women to take the bar exam. She was also the first woman to serve as clerk of the judiciary committee of the State Assembly, the first woman deputy district attorney in the United States, and the first to run for governor. After Foltz and fellow suffragist Laura de Force Gordon enrolled at Hastings College of Law, the Hastings board informed them that women were not allowed to study there. Foltz and Gordon sued Hastings and represented themselves in court. The trial court ruled in the women’s favor; however, Hastings appealed the case and won. The case went to the California Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the women. The decision influenced California’s 1879 Constitutional Convention to adopt two clauses guaranteeing women access to education and employment, the first state to do so. Foltz is also considered the founder of the California parole system and originator of the public defender system. Laura De Force Gordon Laura de Force Gordon was a lawyer and newspaper editor who advocated for women’s rights. She contributed to the founding of the California Woman Suffrage Society. In February 1868 in San Francisco, she delivered a call for equal rights for women, one of the first such public appeals to be made in the West. She actively lobbied for Clara Foltz’s Woman Lawyer’s Bill and later joined her in the landmark Hastings lawsuit, where the California Supreme Court ultimately ruled women had a right to attend the law school. Their victory set off a precedent for women’s rights to employment and education in California. Gordon practiced general and criminal law in San Francisco and Stockton, and became the first woman in California to argue a case to a jury. She became renowned for her defenses in murder cases and practiced in front of the United States Supreme Court. Mary McHenry Keith Mary McHenry Keith was the first woman to graduate from Hastings Law School. She practiced law for a short while before fully participating in activism for women’s and animal rights. She organized in Berkeley with the Woman’s Congress, Berkeley Political Equality Club, and other organizations.  Keith's leadership was key to the passing of women's suffrage in California in 1911 (marking "The Sixth Star"). After the dismissal of the campaign in 1896, Keith began a new approach to the movement with messaging that emphasized the right and need to co-education and utilizing devices such as cars and telephones for outreach to rural areas. In 1912, she was elected president of California’s Equal Suffrage Association, where she supported suffrage on a national level and contributed to the 19th amendment's ratification in 1920.  Gail Laughlin Gail Laughlin was the first woman to practice law in Maine and served on the Maine State Senate, but she had a big impact in California. In 1914, she opened a law office in San Francisco. There, she helped found the National League for Women’s Service, served as a judge in the police courts, and drafted and passed a law allowing women to serve on juries. Laughlin's impact reached beyond California and her native state. She began her advocacy for women on juries in 1908 in Denver, where she opened her second law office. She delivered the opening keynote at the first National Federation of Business and Professional Women convention in 1919 in St. Louis and was elected as the organization's first national president. In 1927, she helped campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment and led a 200-car motorcade from Kansas to South Dakota to confront President Calvin Coolidge during his vacation.