Emilie Kempin-Spyri

Emilie Kempin-Spyri (born March 18, 1853, in Altstetten; died April 12, 1901, in Basel; née Spyri, married name Kempin) was the first woman in Switzerland to graduate with a law degree and to be accepted as an academic lecturer.

[2] After she was also rejected as a lecturer at the University of Zürich, she emigrated to New York for a brief period, where she established the first women's law college.

Although the university senate declined the application again, she received the Venia Legendi (the right to lecture) from the education department as an exception.

Thanks to Emilie Kempin-Spyri, a new attorney's statute was introduced in Zürich canton in 1898 that allowed women to practice law, in spite of lacking active citizenship.

[9][10] Emily Kempin-Spyris's life was literarily portrayed in Eveline Hasler's book Die Wachsflügelfrau.