Essential Estrogen

A few days ago while writing a piece about Christie Vilsack, I promised to return with more information about one of her pet projects. Today is the day! So, I invite you to meet one of Iowa's most prominent women of the 1800s, Arabella (Belle) Babb Mansfield.

Mansfield passed the bar exam on June 15, 1869 to become the first woman licensed to practice law in the United States. That however, is only one chapter of her story.

She was born in Sperry (Des Moines County) and graduated from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1866. She taught briefly at Simpson College in Indianola and then began studying law with her brother in the Ambler Law Office in Mount Pleasant. In June of 1968 she married John Mansfield, a professor of science at Iowa Wesleyan.

In June of the following year, she was admitted to the bar. The Henry County attorneys who examined her wrote, "Your committee take unusual pleasure in recommending the admission of Mrs. Mansfield, not only because she is the first lady that has thus applied for this authority, in the State, but because in her examination she has given the very best rebuke possible to the imputation that ladies cannot qualify themselves for the practice of law.”

Unfortunately, she never practiced law in the traditional sense. It is likely that she was too involved with women’s issues at the time. Not only was she the first woman admitted to the bar, but she was a strong advocate for women’s voting rights. In l871 she served as a delegate to the 2nd Iowa Woman Suffrage Convention in Des Moines. Also in the early 1870s she traveled extensively in Europe observing the courts of London and studying law in France.

In the late 1880s when her husband accepted a position at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana she served as professor and dean, but returned often to Iowa Wesleyan to teach and lecture during the fall semesters. In the summer of l893 she addressed the National League of Women Lawyers at the Chicago World’s Fair, where she was officially acknowledged as the first woman to be admitted to the bar in the U.S. She was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in l980.

As Christie Vilsack wrote in a letter last month, visitors seeking Belle in Mt. Pleasant will be sorely disappointed. There is only a small conference room named in her honor on the second floor of the Iowa Wesleyan Library.

"I want young women who consider attending Iowa Wesleyan to know that this community has always nurtured women who achieve," Vilsack wrote.

The short-term goal is to create a nationwide grassroots fundraising campaign to raise $250,000 for two projects -- a bronze statue on the Iowa Wesleyan campus and a yearly symposium.

Those who would like to contribute can send donations to: Iowa Wesleyan Foundation, 601 North Main, Mt. Pleasant, IA 52641. Further information can be found by viewing Belle Babb Mansfield Project brochure.