Emma Gillett

Emma Gillett was an American lawyer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the advancement of legal studies for women.

Gillett was born in Princeton, Wisconsin on July 30, 1852 to Wisconsin homesteaders. She was educated in Girard, Pennsylvania, when her family moved following the death of her father. In 1870, she graduated from Lake Erie College and taught for the following ten years in the Pennsylvania public school system. During her time as a teacher, she became frustrated and the meager wages that were paid to single women teachers.

After the death of Gillett's mother, Gillett's role in the settlement of her estate sparked Gillett's interest in law, as well as for a better paying profession. Encouraged by the news of Belva Lockwood, who had become the first female law student at National University in Washington, DC, Gillett moved to Washington in hopes of following in Lockwood's footsteps. Unfortunately, however, she found that National University had closed its doors to women. Never discouraged, Gillette found admission at Howard University, and graduated in 1883. She passed the bar in the District of Columbia the same year. Additionally, she became first woman to be appointed notary public by the President of the United States.

After admission to the Bar she formed a partnership with Watson J. Newton which continued until the death of Mr. Newton in 1913. At one time she was connected with the District Title Insurance Company and was later Vice President of the Realty Appraisal & Title Company.

During this time, her colleague and friend, Ellen Spencer Mussey sought her assistance in the education of women in the field of law. Mussey had been approached in 1895 by Delia Sheldon Jackson, an aspiring attorney, to apprentice her as a student of law. Realizing both the scope of the task and the significance of the opportunity, Mussey sought out the assistance of Gillett. The two opened the first session of the Woman's Law Class on February 1, 1896. The class had an enrollment of three: Jackson and two other women, Nanette Paul and Helen Malcolm.

Within a few years, the program had expanded and several prominent Washington, DC attorneys were brought in for assistance. Although Mussey and Gillett had not initially aspired to establish an independent law school, when Columbian College (now the George Washington University refused their request to taken on the women they had educated for their final year of education -- on grounds that "women did not have the mentality for law" -- the two decided to establish a co-educational law school specifically open to women.

Thus, in April 1898, the Washington College of Law (now merged with American University) was incorporated in Washington, DC as the first law school in the world founded by women.

One of Gillett's dearest activities was the establishment of a woman’s club (the Wimondaughsis) in Washington.

Gillett held many additional roles, including Vice President for the District of Columbia of the American Bar Association in 1922; President of the State Suffrage Association of the District; President of the Women’s Bar Association in 1921, and at the time of her death was Dean Emeritus of the Washington College of Law and Chairman of the Legal Branch of the National Woman's Party.

Gillett died on January 23, 1927, after contracting pneumonia while confined to her bed due to breaking her hip the previous October.