Catherine Waugh McCulloch

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Catherine Waugh McCulloch
Catherine Waugh McCulloch

Catherine Gouger Waugh McCulloch (June 4, 1862 - April 20, 1945) was an American lawyer and noted suffragist.

She was a pioneer for American women in the legal profession. She was active in campaigning for women's suffrage and legislation granting equal rights to women. She also served as legal advisor (1904-1911) and vice-president (1910-1911) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

[edit] Life

In November of 1886 she was the 18th woman to be admitted to the bar in Illinois. She drafted and successfully lobbied for the passage of a law in 1901 that gave women equal guardianship with their husbands over their children, and in 1905 to raise the age of consent for girls from 14 to 16 years. In 1907 she was elected Justice of the Peace in Evanston, Illinois (and re-elected in 1909), making her the first woman elected to that office in Illinois, and in 1917 she was appointed as a master in chancery of the Cook County Superior Court.

With Esther Dunshee Bower she fought for the Illinois Women's Jury Bill, finally signed into law in 1939. She was the legal adviser for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (which became the League of Women Voters in 1920 after passage of the 19th Amendment) and was its first vice president.

May 30, 1890 she married one of her law school classmates, Frank McCulloch, and they formed the law firm of McCulloch & McCulloch. In 1929 they jointly authored and published A Manual of the Law of Will Contests in Illinois.

The McCullochs had four children: Hugh Waugh, Hathorn Waugh, Catharine Waugh, and Frank Waugh.

[edit] Publications

All available through the Harvard University Library Open Collections Program, a fully searchable online database.

  • Bittenbender, Ada M. "Women in Law," in Farmer, Lydia Hoyt. The national exposition souvenir: what America owes to women Buffalo: C.W. Moulton, 1893. Pages 390-408.
  • Drysdale, William. "The Woman Lawyer," in Helps for ambitious girls New York: T.Y. Crowell & Co., c1900. Pages 180-208.
  • "Law," in Training for the professions and allied occupations: facilities available to women in the United States. New York: Bureau of Vocational Information, 1924. Pages 427-450.
  • McCulloch, Catharine Waugh. "Women as Law Clerks" manuscript. c1887. (12 pages).
  • Bureau of Vocational Information (New York, N.Y.). Records, 1908-1932: A Finding Aid

[edit] External links

  • Harvard University Library Open Collections Program. Women Working, 1870-1930, Catharine Gouger Waugh McCulloch (1862-1945). A full-text searchable online database with complete access to publications written by Catharine McCulloch.
  • Women's Legal History Biography Project, Robert Crown Library, Stanford Law School. McCulloch, Catharine Gouger Waugh. Biographical articles, collected papers and archival materials.