Firsts in Ohio's history
Law School
Lawyers
- First female: Nettie Cronise Lutes (1873)[3]
- First African American female: Daisy D. Perkins (1919)[4]
State judges
- First female: Florence E. Allen (1914) in 1920[5]
- First female (Supreme Court of Ohio): Florence E. Allen (1914) in 1922[5]
- First female (municipal court): Mary B. Grossman (1912) in 1923[6]
- First African American female: Lillian W. Burke (1951) in 1969[7][6]
- First African American female (elected): C. Ellen Connally (1971) in 1979[6]
- First African American female (Ohio Courts of Common Pleas): Stephanie Tubbs Jones in 1983[8]
- First openly lesbian female: Mary Wiseman (1998) in 2007[9]
- First Hispanic American (female) (Ohio Court of Appeals; appointed): Keila Cosme in 2009[10]
- First African American female (Supreme Court of Ohio): Yvette McGee Brown in 2011[11]
- First female (Chief Justice; Supreme Court of Ohio): Maureen O'Connor in 2011[12]
- First (Asian American) female (Fourth District Court of Appeals): Marie Hoover (1994) in 2012[13][14]
- First Egyptian American female: Sherrie Mikhail Miday (2001) in 2016[15]
- First Latino American female (Ohio Court of Appeals; elected): Marilyn Zayas-Davis in 2016[16][17][18][19]
- First African American female (Supreme Court of Ohio): Melody J. Stewart in 2018[20][21]
- First African American female (Tenth District Court of Appeals): Laurel Beatty Blunt in 2018[22]
- First Hispanic American female (Supreme Court of Ohio; sit-in): Marilyn Zayas-Davis in 2020[23]
Federal judges
- First female (U.S. Court of Appeals - Sixth Circuit): Florence E. Allen (1914) in 1934[5]
- First female (federal district court): Ann Aldrich (1950) in 1980[24][25][26]
- First African American female (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio): Benita Y. Pearson (1995)[27]
- First African American female (Judge and Chief Judge; United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio): Jessica E. Price Smith in 2011 and 2024 respectively[28]
Attorney General of Ohio
- First female: Betty Montgomery from 1995-2003[29]
Assistant Attorney General
- First African American female: Helen Elsie Austin (1930) in 1937[30][31]
United States Attorney
- First African American female (Northern District of Ohio):[32] Marisa T. Darden was confirmed in 2022, though she withdrew before she officially took office
Assistant United States Attorney
- First female (Northern District of Ohio): Carole S. Rendon[33]
County Prosecutor
- First African American female: Stephanie Tubbs Jones in 1991[8]
Public Defender
- First female: Elizabeth Miller in 2023[34]
Ohio State Bar Association
- First female admitted to bar: Clara Millard (1911)[1][2]
- First female president: Kathleen Burke from 1993-1994[35]
Political Office
- First African American female (U.S. House of Representatives): Stephanie Tubbs Jones in 1999[8]