TEN WOMEN IN U.S. LEGAL HISTORY #3: Arabella Mansfield (May 23, 1846 – August 1, 1911) became the first woman admitted to practice law in the U.S. (Iowa) in 1869. Despite the fact that Iowa state law restricted the bar exam to males only, Mansfield took it, earned high scores and challenged the Iowa courts, causing the state to amend its licensing statutes to become the first U.S. state to accept women and minorities to its bar. Mansfield worked primarily as an educator and activist. She later became a university administrator and served in the 1890s as a dean at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Active in the women’s suffrage movement, Mansfield also worked with Susan B. Anthony and chaired the Iowa Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1870. She died in 1911 in Illinois, before the passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.