Women's History at BC Law: Mary Butler Becker

Headline from the Daily Boston Globe, June 14, 1945. Source: Proquest Boston Globe Historical Collection

The decision to admit women students to Boston College Law School was made, by faculty committee, in the fall of 1940. In the fall of 1941, nine women students were admitted (out of 99 first year students); two more women were accepted as auditors.

But hard times were about to fall on the Law School. That December the United States entered into WWII, and a large portion of the male student body were conscripted for military service or left to join the war effort.  Only nine students completed their Bachelor of Laws in 1944 - among them, BCLS's first woman law graduate, Mary Butler Becker.

List of law degrees awarded in 1944, including Mary Butler Becker; excerpt from the Boston College Bulletin, 1945. Source: BCLS Digital Commons

Although she graduated in September 1944, Mary Butler Becker walked with the law graduates of 1944 and 1945 (there were only seven that year!) on June 13, 1945.  Also at that ceremony were BCLS's second and third women law graduates, Frances Rose Foley and Ruth Irene Moses.

This June, we will mark 75 years since these first three women accepted their diplomas from Boston College Law School. Today the BCLS student body is 52% women; over 100 women accepted their diplomas in May 2019. We have come a long way in 75 years - and these groundbreaking women helped pave the way.