NYSBA Leads the Way: The Rise of Women in Law

NYSBA Leads the Way: The Rise of Women in Law

3.24.2026

By Susan L. Harper

During the Gilded Age, New York witnessed the meteoric rise of organized membership associations. Women of that era established their own associations to unite, excite and bring about changes to the law, their rights and their roles in society as individuals, wives, mothers and workers. At gatherings over tea and conventions, the activists of the day formed powerful associations to gain local, state and federal voting rights, address racial justice and seek economic and social reforms.[1]

The end of the 19th century also saw the birth of the New York State Bar Association. Organized by the leading attorneys of the era, the new association brought lawyers together to strengthen the profession and tackle pressing legal issues. However, in keeping with the times, women were excluded from the new state bar. It would take until 1901 to admit Kate Crennell of Rochester as the first woman NYSBA member[2] and more than 110 years before Maryann Saccomando Freedman of Buffalo became the first woman NYSBA president.[3] Yet the absence of women attorneys did not mean that influential 19th century advocates, ordinary citizens and allies in the Legislature and the judiciary were not thinking about how the law could be used strategically to advance women’s interests.[4]

One such trailblazer was Kate Stoneman. In 1886, after being denied admission to the New York bar solely based on her sex, Stoneman and her fellow Albany suffragists mounted a successful lobbying campaign.[5] Their efforts persuaded Gov. David B. Hill (then also president of NYSBA) to sign legislation permitting women to practice law in New York.[6]

Paving the Way for Women in Law and Reform

Today, women attorneys make up more than 41% of the legal profession nationwide.[7] At the New York State Bar Association, women constitute 48% of the association membership and engage in all practices of law.

The association’s growing Women in Law Section, building on the work of its predecessor, the Committee on Women in Law, continually pushes the boundaries for women in law and society, using strategies and tactics that closely mirror those of the 19th-century activists who paved the way: leading, educating, organizing, publishing, messaging, speaking, testifying and lobbying.

While modern women in law now employ digital tools to connect, promote and advocate, the mission to advance the law for women remains true to its 19th-century roots. Equally enduring are the platforms created through the association’s committees and sections, which continue to elevate issues, frame reports and bring recommendations before the Executive Committee, House of Delegates, and the state Legislature.

20th Century Women in Law and Society Advance

Women only made up 3% of all lawyers nationwide from 1950 to 1970, according to the American Bar Association, which has been tracking attorneys since 1878. Starting in the 1970s, during a decade that ushered in women’s rights activism and landmark court rulings and legislation, 9%, or around 6,682, of all U.S. law students were women and the “numbers doubled and doubled again” in the decade, reports the ABA.[8]

The landmark Supreme Court decisions of the 1970s reshaped women’s rights, addressing issues such as workplace and pregnancy discrimination, reproductive rights, equal protection in estate administration, contraception, military spouse benefits, Social Security and equal pay and economic opportunity. Bolstered by groundbreaking legislation such as Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs or activities that receive federal support, and the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which opened financial doors long closed to women, women forged new pathways to achieve equality at home, in schools and in the workplace.[9] Many of these cases were shaped and argued by famed New York attorney and later U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, founder of the ACLU’s Women’s Right’s Project[10] and a NYSBA Gold Medal honoree. Notably, while the wins achieved in the 1970s were very significant, they were also a reminder that women were still unequal in the law, in the workplace and in the courts.

Women, however, were energized by the landmark and life changing victories of the 1970s and the new educational opportunities now opened to them because of Title IX, spurring more women to enter the legal profession.[11]  By the start of the 1980s, there were more than 40,000 women in law school[12] and 8% of all U.S attorneys were women.[13]

Women in Law Mobilize in New York State

With this new momentum, women in law mobilized in the 1980s to create their own new influential associations and committees, including the Women’s Bar Association of New York. The Women’s Bar Association brought together regional women’s bar associations and attracted well-known women attorneys and judges who focused on gender bias in the profession and the courts. They addressed the challenges women faced in becoming partners, securing judicial positions and accessing health care, while also developing legislation to support women in other key areas. One early notable win was advocating for the passage of the Private Clubs Anti-Discrimination Bill, which prohibited discrimination against women and minorities in private clubs with 100 or more members. The legislation passed in 1994 shortly after New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye was denied entry to the dining room in an all-male New York City club.[14]

Women became a major focus within the court system in the 1980s. Then New York State Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke created the Task Force on Women in the Courts, which concluded that “gender bias against women litigants, lawyers, and court employees is a pervasive problem with grave consequence. Women are often denied equal treatment and equal opportunity.”[15]

Responding to these developments, the New York State Bar Association launched its own Special Committee on Women in the Courts, chaired by Ruth G. Schapiro of New York City, along with Gail G. Wright of New York City, who was chair of Minorities in the Profession. The special committee found that “gender bias was still pervasive in the [legal] profession and that minorities continued to be denied full participation in the profession.”[16]

Under the leadership of NYSBA’s first elected woman president, Maryann Saccomando Freedman, “the Code of Professional Responsibility was amended to include an antidiscrimination disciplinary rule and corresponding ethical consideration as part of the initiative approved by the NYSBA’s House of Delegates to curb biased treatments and promote opportunity in the profession.”[17]

During this decade, women attorneys were finally gaining ground at the highest levels of the judiciary, breaking the marble ceiling. The 1983 appointment of NYSBA member Judith Kaye as the first woman associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals was a watershed moment for women in the judiciary. Only two years earlier, Sandra Day O’Connor was nominated as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. A decade later, Kaye would be appointed chief judge of New York State, where she would identify methods to address gender discrimination in the legal system, improve the jury system and the civil justice process, and introduce problem-solving approaches to drug and domestic violence cases.[18] One biographer said at the time, “Kaye’s performance as Chief Judge, ongoing as of the date of this writing, has been nothing short of ‘phenomenal’ (to use one of Kaye’s own favorite words). As a judge on the Court of Appeals, she continued to combine the highest level of judicial reasoning with a pellucid writing style, all under the umbrella of ‘what makes sense.’ ”[19]

Women in the New York State Bar Association

Building on the 1970s women’s rights movement, the mobilization of women lawyers in the 1980s, and women attaining major judiciary and bar leadership roles, NYSBA launched the Committee on Women in Law in 1986, which became a standing committee of the association. Also chaired by Schapiro, the committee was charged with identifying, studying and making recommendations to address gender bias and law-related issues affecting women. The 50-person committee was built through appointment by the NYSBA president. Appointments were strategic, with top women attorneys tapped to lead the influential committee and its subcommittees. Committee leaders tackled issues of importance to women attorneys, as well as legislation and policy impacting women generally. The committee proposed actions to ensure the fair treatment of women under the law and the full participation of women in the administration of justice and as equal members of the legal profession.

Expanding the Committee to the Section

In the three decades from when the committee was established in 1986 to 2018, the national population of lawyers climbed to over 1.3 million – an over 100% increase in just 30 years.

Significantly, the proportion of women attorneys reached:

20% in 1991.
27% in 2000.
41% in 2024.[20]

In response to this growth, in 2018 the then 50-person committee requested to be expanded into a section to support the growing body of women attorneys. Supported by then-NYSBA President Michael Miller, NYSBA President-Elect Hank Greenberg, and Secretary Sherry Levin Wallach (who became NYSBA president for 2022–23), the 30-year-old committee officially converted to the Women in Law Section in 2018. The change was enthusiastically and unanimously approved by the Executive Committee and House of Delegates during the June 2018 meetings in Cooperstown.

Upon the announcement of the new Women in Law Section, new members instantly joined, growing the section from 50 to around 800 members, attracting women and men nationally and internationally. This expansion offered a larger platform for women attorneys to amplify their voices within the association and the state and to engage with one another no matter where they are in their lives and careers. Over a dozen committees were established under the section’s bylaws, with new committees introduced, including: Emerging Lawyers, Equity in the Legal Profession, Gender Issues, General Counsels, Partners’ Champions (male allies), Reports, Surveys and Publications, and Women in the Association.

Seven years later, the Women in Law Section is one of the largest sections in NYSBA, ranking No. 7 out of 28 sections with over 2,800 members (as of 12/31/25.)

NYSBA Advances and Supports Women’s Rights and Professional Responsibilities

Engagement, education, and policy advancement have long defined NYSBA’s Women in Law Section (and previously the committee). Through networking programs and events, section members make valuable relationships, and gain insights and skills to support and advance their legal careers. Whether learning about rainmaking, negotiations, AI and technology, client development, general counsel skills or turning obstacles into opportunities, the section works to continually support member needs. The section also regularly comments on legislation to combat discrimination and societal disparities. From creating model parental leave and sexual harassment policies to advocating for laws on equal pay, paid family leave, revenge porn, reproductive rights, domestic violence and the Equal Rights Amendment in New York State, the section ensures that the collective voices of female attorneys are heard.

The section also hosts popular Annual Meeting programs, luncheons and awards that often draw on the who’s who of the judiciary and prominent attorneys over the last four decades, including Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, Betty Weinberg Ellerin, former Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, former Chief Judge (now Senior Judge) of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Colleen McMahon, General Counsel of the Legal Aid Society Susan Lindenauer, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy and past bar presidents. Such luminaries have shared stories of their own challenges to inspire the current and next generation of attorneys and bar leaders to step up to the plate professionally, and mentor and support each other.

In one of her last visits to the committee before her passing, Judge Kaye spoke before the Annual Meeting audience and repeated the following: “Each one of you can be the chief judge.” Planting these seeds sowed the idea, belief and vision that, even against all odds, each attorney can rise to be a giant of the bar and the judiciary; associate attorneys can become partners; partners can become managing partners; managing partners can become firm chairs; in-house counsel can become general counsels and any one of us could even rise to become the chief judge of the state of New York, as Kaye did.

Women in Law Section Continues To Respond

With the backsliding of women’s rights following the Dobbs decision and the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion by the current administration and some states, the Women in Law Section is responding with groundbreaking reports brought to the attention of the House of Delegates, innovative publications and programming throughout the year, including at its 2026 22nd Edith I. Spivack Annual Meeting Symposium, “Knowing Our Rights: Protections Across Life in New York.” Longtime NYSBA women in law leader Carol C. Villegas, partner at Labaton Keller Sucharow, who recently secured a landmark jury verdict holding Meta Platforms liable for the unauthorized recording and commercial use of women’s menstrual health data, will deliver the 2026 keynote address. Attendees will also learn about navigating their rights from four panels focusing on pregnancy and workplace accommodations, LBGTQ+ and marriage equality, age and disability discrimination, and wellness and resiliency.

Progress: Women in the Majority

New York has one of the largest proportions of women attorneys of any state. By the end of 2024, the New York State Unified Court System Office of Court Administration Attorney Registration Unit reported that there were 190,015 resident New York attorneys and 170,152 attorneys outside of New York for a total of 360,167 licensed attorneys.[21] The Office of Court Administration does not keep public statistics on the number of New York licensed women attorneys. However, NYSBA estimates that women make up approximately 40% of the attorneys in New York State, mirroring the national numbers.

The growth in women attorneys is fueled by student composition in law schools. Today, women are gaining parity and, in some cases, surpassing their male counterparts, with women making up 56.2% of law school students nationwide,[22] and U.S. law schools awarding more juris doctor degrees to women than men, while senior lawyers – predominantly male – are retiring.[23]

Women’s progress does not end there. Women now account for 55% of summer associates and exceed the number of male associate attorneys as of 2024 at 51.6%.[24]

Nationally, as of Jan. 1, 2024, women made up 41% of the legal profession, or around 542,286 attorneys out of the 1.35 million active lawyers in the United States, according to the ABA.[25]

While women attorneys still lag behind their male counterparts in partnerships (women account for 28% of all law firm partners as of 2024[26] and women of color, 5% of all partners for the first time in 2024),[27] their continued growth in the legal profession and in other professional spheres cannot be denied. Women are chairs, CEOs, general counsels, state and federal judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, governors, legislators, law school deans and professors, law firm partners and owners, members of boards of directors and public sector attorneys. At the New York State Bar Association, women hold positions at all levels: presidents, presidents-elect, secretaries, treasurers, section and committee chairs, and staff.

It is no coincidence that qualified and influential women sit in these leadership positions today.

With a stroke of New York Gov. Hill’s pen in 1886, and through the determined lobbying of women and supportive allies, the course of women as attorneys, in society and at the New York State Bar Association changed forever.

As we enter our 150th association year, let us pause to celebrate the progress women attorneys have achieved and the allies and institutions who stood beside us who have helped us break barriers, drive reform and advance opportunities. Challenges remain, but united in purpose and strengthened by our shared legacy, our collective power will continue to propel us forward.

Susan L. Harper is the treasurer of NYSBA. Admitted to the New York and New Jersey bars, Harper is a financial services attorney whose work bridges law, finance and advocacy. She is the founding chair of NYSBA’s Women in Law Section and a past chair of the Committee on Women in the Law. She is a past president and board chair of the Financial Women’s Association of New York, Inc. and its educational fund, as well as a board member of the New York County Lawyers Association.

Endnotes:

[1] New York State Bar Association’s Women in Law Section, A Centennial Commemoration of Women’s Suffrage and Achievements of Legal Rights (Nov. 2017; updated 2018). See also University of Chicago Library, A Voice for Justice: the Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells (2018), https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/voice-for-justice-life-and-legacy-ida-b-wells/civil-rights-and-womens-organizations/.

[2] Deborah Gardner and Christine McKay, Of Practical Benefit, New York State Bar Association: 1876-2001, New York State Bar Association, (2003), at 37.

[3] Henry Greenberg, The Birth of the New York State Bar Association (April 13, 2022), NYSBA, https://nysba.org/the-birth-of-the-new-york-state-bar-association/#_ednref111, at note 115.

[4]  Hon. Richard Dollinger. The Judges Who Paved the Road to Seneca Falls in 1848, New York Historical Society of the Courts of New York, Judicial Notice, Issue 12 (Nov. 2017), https://history.nycourts.gov/judicial-notice-12/.

[5] Albany Law, About Kate Stoneman (n.d.; last visited Aug. 2025), https://www.albanylaw.edu/katestoneman/about-kate-stoneman.

[6] University at Albany, The First Female To Attend and Graduate from Albany Law School, The First Women Admitted to New York State Bar, Suffragist (n.d.; last visited Oct. 15, 2025), https://www.albany.edu/arce/Stoneman21.html, See also note 2, supra.

[7] American Bar Association, Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Demographics – Lawyers by Gender (2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/demographics/. (last visited Oct. 16, 2025).

[8] American Bar Association, Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Women in the Legal Profession (2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/women.

[9] Robin Saks Frankel, History of Women and Credit Cards: 1970s to the Present, Forbes (Dec. 6, 2024), https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/when-could-women-get-credit-cards/.

[10] American Civil Liberties Union, Timeline of Major Supreme Court Decision on Women’s Rights, (2007). https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/101917a-wrptimeline_0.pdf.

[11] Note 8, supra. See graph, “Law School Enrollment by Gender 1970-2023.”

[12]  Note 11, supra.

[13] American Bar Association, Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Demographics – Lawyers by Gender, (2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/demographics/. (last visited Oct. 16, 2025).

[14]  Barbara H. Grcevic, The Extraordinary Women of the Empire State: A History of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (n.d; visited Aug. 15, 2025), https://www.wbasny.org/about/history/.

[15] Deborah Gardner and Christine McKay, Of Practical Benefit, New York State Bar Association: 1876-2001, New York State Bar Association, (2003), at 152.

[16] Id. at 151. See also Report of the New York Task Force on Women in the Courts, 15:1 Fordham Urban Law J. 11 (1986), https://ww2.nycourts.gov/sites/default/files/document/files/2018-07/Report%20of%20the%20New%20York%20Task%20Force%20on%20Women%20in%20the%20Courts.pdf.

[17] Of Practical Benefit, supra note 15, at 151.

[18] Id. at 17.

[19] Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt, Biography of Judith Smith Kaye, Historical Society of the New York Courts, https://history.nycourts.gov/biography/judith-smith-kaye/. (This biography appears in The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History (Fordham University Press, 2007)). 

[20] Supra note 7.

[21] Unified Court System Office of Court Administration Attorney Registration Unit, Location of Registered NY Attorneys as of the End of Calendar Year 2024, https://iappscontent.courts.state.ny.us/aronline/population_report/attorney/2024.pdf.

[22] American Bar Association, ABA News & Insights, Profile of the Profession: New Report Spotlights Rise of Women Lawyers (Nov. 18, 2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/11/profile-report-spotlights-rise-women-lawyers/.

[23] American Bar Association, Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Women in the Legal Profession (2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/women. (last visited Oct. 16, 2025).

[24] National Jurist Editors, Women Represent 55% of Summer Associate Positions at U.S. Law Firms, NALP Reports (Feb. 5, 2025), National Jurist, https://nationaljurist.com/women-represent-55-of-associate-positions-at-u-s-law-firms-nalp-reports/. According to the NALP, the percentage of summer associates of color increased in 2024, to a new high of 43.07%, and associates of color increased by 1.3 percentage points to 31.46%, “a new record high. The increase is said to be attributed to growth in the percentage of women associates of color, which rose to 18.76%.”

[25] American Bar Association, Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Demographics – Lawyers by Gender (2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/demographics/ (last visited Oct. 16, 2025).

[26] American Bar Association, Profile of the Legal Profession 2024: Demographics – Lawyers by Gender (2024), https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/demographics/ (last visited Oct. 16, 2025).

[27] Supra note 8.