Clara Shortridge Foltz
(1849-1934)

First Female Lawyer on the West Coast
Mother of Modern Public Defender System,
called "California's First Woman"

birthdate: July 16
birthplace:
New Lisbon, Henry County, Indiana

QUOTES

"I am descended from the heroic stock of Daniel Boone and never shrank from a contest nor knew a fear."

"Did God fail in His last crowning work when He made woman, that she is not the equal of man? Genius, talent and hard labor know no sex,

"They called me the lady lawyer. Adainty soubriquet that enabled me to maintain a dainty manner as I browbeat my way through the marshes of ignorance and prejudice

"Everything in retrospect seems weird, phantasmal, and unreal. I peer back across the misty years into that era of prejudice and limitation, when a woman lawyer was a joke ... but the story of my triumphs will eventually disclose that though the battle has been long and hard-fought it was worth while."

 

Kids | Youth | Adults | Calendar | Quotes | Heroes | Stories | The EMILY Fund | Scholarships
DO ONE THING and BetterWorld Kids Clubs are projects of The EMILY Fund (The Emily Silverstein Fund, Inc.)
Hero portraits are included for illustration purposes only - no celebrity endorsement implied

The Emily Fund
Education, Mentorship, Inspiration, Leadership, Youth
- for a Better
World

PO Box 430
Roosevelt, NJ 08555-0430
info@EmilyFund.org