Suffrage and Insanity @ Pygmalion (Oct 28 - Nov 12, SLC)

""The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life... [T]he paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator." Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 130 (1873)

To support women's suffrage and efforts to gain employment, Myra Bradwell helped write the Illinois Married Women's Property Act of 1861 and with Alta M. Hulett the Earnings Act of 1869, both of which allowed married women to control their earnings and property. In August 1869, a federal judge (from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals) and state's attorney examined Bradwell's legal ability, pronounced her qualified and suggested that the Illinois State Supreme Court Issue her a license. However, her application was denied on the grounds that as a married woman, she could not enter into any legal contracts, as lawyers do in their profession. On February 5, 1870, the Illinois high court again denied her claim on the basis of sex. Chief Justice Charles B. Lawrence stated that "God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action."

- from the marvelous Wikipedia