Pioneers

• first females to pave the way •

Alice Stebbins Wells

Photo Credit: kpcc.org

Born in the 1800's, Alice Stebbins Wells has made many great achievements and has gotten women rights for jobs. Alice Wells in 1909, requested for women to be a part of Los Angeles as a policewoman. It was passed by the Los Angeles City Council and she is believed to be the nation’s first female policewoman that could arrest others. It wasn’t that easy though. Back then, officers could have free trolley car rides for their work and on her first day when she showed her badge so that she could have a free ride, they accused her of using her husband’s badge. After that, she was provided with a new badge that showed that she was a policewoman, showing clearer identity so that she could have a free ride. Alice Wells was given many jobs that a man would usually have. In 1911, the position of a policewoman was put in Civil Service Control. After that, more and more women got hired to be policewomen. That number increased in not only California, but nationwide. She also helped out in 1915 in the making of the International Policewomen’s Association in 1915 and soon became the first president of the group. Alice Wells wanted to expand further with this and soon UCLA got a course on the work of women police officers which expanded the amount of women joining to become policewoman. Alice Wells was a Los Angeles Police Department until she retired in 1940. Alice Wells also had other significant achievements that will not be forgotten. She opened up new ideas for women and nre options for them when they were older. Today, in the United States of America, there are around 100,000 police women. Alice Wells made a huge impact on a lot of lives and made history. She was a trailblazer and stepped up in a job where there were only men. This inspired so many.

Sedey, Charles Joseph. "Alice Stebbins Wells". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Stebbins-Wells.

Clara Foltz

July 16, 1849 - September 2, 1934

Written By: Sienna S (Age 14)

Stood up for women's rights at school

Paved the way for females to pursue careers in law

Challenged California Law to be inclusive of females

Photo Credit: Los Angeles History Society

Clara Foltz, born in Indiana, moved many times before she settled and migrated to California with her husband and four children, which soon became five. Clara Foltz grew up with the principles of women’s rights at school, which soon became a part of Clara Foltz. It was a dark time, and Clara Foltz’s husband abandoned her, leaving her to make money for her family and support them. She started to study law at a local firm but ran into a problem when she realized that California law only allowed white males over the age of twenty-one to take the bar exam. She strived to change it so that it doesn’t say men, it says, a person over twenty-one can take the bar exam to become a lawyer. It passed the senate and in March 1878, the governor signed the bill saying that women can become a lawyer which opened opportunities for many more women. Clara Foltz became the first female lawyer in California and on the Pacific Coast. Clara Foltz had passed the bar exam and people started knowing about her story nationwide. She joined a college, but then was told that they didn’t not want to have women there, so Clara Foltz filed a suit and the end result was that the judge ordered the college to accept women. Clara Foltz decided that she didn’t want to go to college anymore and stayed a lawyer instead of getting more education. Clara Foltz was a trailblazer because she opened up new opportunities for a job for women. She had a dream to be a lawyer, and didn’t let anything stop her from doing that even being a parent to five children without the help of their father. She kept going and around forty percent of lawyers in California are female.

Maggie. (2013, September 22). Clara Foltz | History of American Women. History of American Women. https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2013/09/clara-foltz.html

Julia Morgan

January 20, 1872 - February 2, 1957

Written By: Sienna S (Age 14)

Known for her work on the Hearst Castle and other important historical pieces

First female to be admitted to her school in Paris

Paved the way for female architects

Photo Credit: Pioneering Women of American Architecture

Julia Morgan, born on January 20th, 1872, in California, is the first woman architect to be licensed in California. Julia Morgan went to the University of California at Berkeley where she got her degree in civil engineering where she gained an interest in architecture. She also had a family member who also was an architect and designed some buildings, which may have inspired her to go down that road in life. Along with this, she went to get more education in Paris, but had to wait, because the school had never admitted a woman before. After she graduated, she moved back to San Francisco and started working for an architect named John Galen Howard. Julia Morgan worked and designed details for the Mining Building that was being made in memory of someone. Along with this, Julia Morgan helped design the Hearst Greek Theater at the University of California in Berkeley. She also opened her own architectural firm which helped her gain more recognition. Julia Morgan started designing and helping more and at different places like the bell tower at the Mills College in Oakland and the rebuilding of the Fairmont Hotel after the 1906 earthquake there. One of her bigger projects was when William Randolph Hearst hired her to design some buildings at his ranch which took a long time to build, but she supervised the building at the ranch carefully which is also called the Hearst Castle. Julia Morgan retired in the early 1950s. She was a trailblazer because she helped make so many historical pieces and was the first women architect to be licensed in California. Many women followed after her in California and were inspired to go the same route as her. Right now, 17% of registered architects are women, but that number only increases as the years go by.

Perkel, A. (2019, February 27). Julia Morgan - Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle - a Museum Like No Other. https://hearstcastle.org/history-behind-hearst-castle/historic-people/profiles/julia-morgan/

Karen Bass

October 3, 1953 - present

Written By: Sienna S (Age 14)

Sworn in by the first female Vice President of the United States

Paved the way for female mayors

Social justice advocate

Photo Credit: karenbass.com

Karen Bass is a big name in Los Angeles, as the first female mayor of Los Angeles. The mayor was sworn in by Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. Karen Bass her whole life wanted to make the world a better place. When she was little, she saw a Civil Right Movement on Television, and that is when she gained an interest in activism. In 1990, Karen Bass founded an organization that was based on social justice called Community Coalition. Karen Bass wanted to find the cause of injustice and wanted to address other problems like crime in South Los Angeles. Along with this, Karen Bass founded the Los Angeles-based National Foster Youth Institute that helps hundreds of thousands of kids in America. There have also been some challenges in her life, for example, when her only daughter sadly passed away, Karen Bass continued to work harder and that hard work paid off. She has been the Speaker to guide others in problems and used her leadership skills to help others. Adding onto this, her efforts did not go unrecognized and received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Karen Bass is a trailblazer because she made history by being the first female mayor of Los Angeles. She inspired so many others because since there is a woman as the mayor, they feel more confidence that they can do it too, knowing that women have gotten that far. Karen Bass inspires a lot of people and has made some significant achievements even with challenges.

About Karen Bass - Karen Bass. (2022, September 9). Karen Bass. https://karenbass.com/about-karen-bass/

Marilyn Jorgenson Reece

September 8, 1926 - May 15, 2004

Written By: Sienna S (Age 14)

Known for her engineering contribution to the Santa Monica 10 Freeway and the San Diego 405 Freeway

Paved the way for females in civil engineering

Photo Credit: Transportation History

Marilyn Reece was the first woman to be a fully licensed civil engineer in 1954. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Minnesota. She then took a job working for the California State Division of Highways. After Marilyn Reece got her license, she started working on a lot of engineering projects in California, one of them being the Santa Monica Freeway, also known as Interstate 10, and the San Diego Freeway, also known as Interstate 405. She used her knowledge of engineering that could create a highway segment that could help with cars moving at faster speeds. This resulted in Marilyn Reece receiving the Governor’s Design Excellence Award by California Governor Pat Brown. She then started teaching engineering classes at California State University at Long Beach, also known as CSULB. She was soon a life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She inspired many people with her achievements and significant contributions to some of the highways and stuff we use today. She was a trailblazer because she was the first woman to be a fully licensed civil engineer, and many people started to follow her since then and some people were students of her that learned a lot and continued on to be an engineer.

Women in Transportation History: Marilyn J. Reece, Civil Engineer. (2022, February 24). Transportation History. https://transportationhistory.org/2019/03/15/women-in-transportation-history-marilyn-j-reece-civil-engineer/