Women Lawyers
Between 1890 and 1930, Alberta women were leaders in the struggle to break down barriers to gender equality in Canada. Their early encounters with Alberta’s legal system were decisive events in this struggle.
LASA 2001-010
1915: Lillian Ruby Clements, Barrister & Solicitor
The first woman admitted to the bar in Alberta was Lillian Ruby Clements of Vegreville in 1915. Her case was treated with greater scrutiny by the Law Society of Alberta and as somewhat of a newsworthy oddity by the local press, but Clements received no official opposition. Shortly after her admission, Clements married Chester Gainer of Edmonton, ceased practice, and never returned to the practice of law.
LASA 05-00-01 file 321
1912: Correspondence regarding admission of first female lawyer
The legal community responds to the new challenges of women as lawyers and magistrates.
LASA 2021-017
1952: Violet King
Violet King was born on October 18, 1929, in Calgary, Alberta.
King was the first Black Canadian to receive a law degree in Alberta after obtaining her LLB in 1953 from the University of Alberta. King was the only female in her graduating class that year. Called to the Alberta Bar on June 2, 1954, she became the first Black person admitted to the Alberta Bar and the first Black woman to become a lawyer in Canada.
King articled in the Calgary firm of criminal lawyer, Edward J. McCormick, Q.C., where she recalled working on five murder trials during her articling year. She continued practicing law in Calgary until 1956.
King married Godfrey C. Henry in 1965 and gave birth to their only child, Jo-Anne Henry, in 1966.
She passed away in New York on March 30, 1982, at the age of 52 following a battle with cancer.
LASA 05-02-01 file 1829
1961: Ruple Ferguson, first Alberta female recipient of King’s Counsel (Queen’s Counsel at that time)
LASA 2015-004
1960s: Helen D. Steeves
10th woman admitted to Law Society of Alberta. Made courtroom appearances.
LASA 45-G-32
1972: Cheryl C. Gottselig, bar admission by Justice Harold Riley
LASA 5-G-115
1990: The Honourable Mary M. Hetherington, C.M.
First woman appointed to Alberta Court of Appeal in 1985.
- District Court of Alberta, Calgary, December 21, 1978 – June 30, 1978
- Court of King’s Bench of Alberta (Court of Queen’s Bench at that time), Calgary, June 30, 1979 – October 4, 1985
- Court of Appeal of Alberta, Calgary, October 4, 1985 – 2012
LASA
The Honourable Elizabeth A. McFadyen
Elizabeth A. McFadyen was the first female judge appointed in Alberta at age 35 and became the youngest appointee in Canada. District Court of Alberta, Edmonton 5 January 1976 – 30 June 1979 Court of King’s Bench of Alberta (Court of Queen’s Bench at that time), Edmonton 1979 – 1993 Court of Appeal of Alberta, Edmonton 1993 – 2012 Changing Faces in the Court (excerpt from oral history interview with Elizabeth A. McFadyen) “There was one day – at first when I would go in everybody in the courtroom would be male, the police officer, the guard, the lawyers, the clerk, the stenographer. But one day I looked down in the courtroom and discovered that the only male in the room was the accused. And that was an eye-opening experience. It happened gradually but in due course. I had not been particularly noticing, it was just a sudden recognition that there was nobody, including the security guard in the courtroom. I was right on the edge of that moment of change. Interesting time to be there, interesting time to have watched it develop.”
LASA 2002-028.2
1993: First all-female Alberta Court of Appeal panel
Justice Mary M. Hetherington, first female Chief Justice of Alberta Catherine A. Fraser, and Justice Carole M. Conrad.