Her application to be sworn in as a lawyer was at first rejected, but after the law was changed in 1900 she was the second French woman to be authorized to plead at the bar (after Olga Petit.)

Since the Belgian and French civil codes were so similar in wording Jeanne Chauvin expected to be refused also.

[7] Eventually Chauvin was persuaded to apply for admission to the bar by Louis Frank, a Belgian barrister and supporter of equal rights for women.

A law of 1848 said all people had the right to work; according to La Fronde there were well over one hundred female lawyers in the United States; and women could make unique contributions.

Chauvin said she wanted to act as advocate for poor women and children facing domestic problems, where her "role as defender will seem wholly natural - even to my colleagues.".

Later a cartoonist in this paper had a female barrister say "Seeing as you have monopolized the 'robe', sirs, it seems only logical for us to adopt breaches and a morning coat to distinguish ourselves from you.

She and the feminist Marya Chéliga-Loevy favored giving an unmarried mother the right to seek out the father and demand child support.

[8] On 19 January 1926 she was invested as a knight of the Legion of Honour by Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934), a lawyer and former President of the Republic (1913–1920).