Flashback
110 years ago
First women receive UB law degrees
The first female graduates of the UB Law School received their degrees 110 years ago. Two women—Cecilia (sometimes shortened to Cecil) B. Wiener (left) and Helen Z.M. Rodgers (right)—and 44 men made up the Class of 1899. In the final rankings, Rodgers finished first in the class and Wiener eighth.
UB was among the first law schools to admit women, and when they enrolled in 1897, Rodgers and Wiener were following other female students attending UB’s professional schools. The first female graduate in the medical school was Mary Blair-Moody in 1876; Rosa Schorp was in the pharmacy school’s first graduating class in 1888 and Annette Rankin was in the dental school’s third class in 1895.
Wiener became the first judge of what is now the Erie County Family Court. Rodgers was the first woman to practice law in Buffalo and the first woman to argue a case before the New York Court of Appeals. In 1919, she argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Rodgers was associated with the firm of Moot, Sprague, Brownell & Marcy from 1906 until 1940, and was an unsuccessful congressional candidate in 1936.
Wiener and Rodgers practiced law for 20 years before they were allowed to vote. The women remained friends throughout their careers, and both worked to expand the rights of women and children. Both died in 1960. Twenty years later, Rodgers’ papers were found in a basement storeroom at 1141 Delaware Ave., her last residence. They now are housed in the University Archives.
—John Edens, University Archives
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