She attended Newnham College and she was the first woman to be awarded for coming first in both parts of Cambridge University's double law tripos.

She was articled unofficially to a Lincoln's Inn law firm before joining the National Service for Women.

The test case was heard in the Chancery Division in July 1913 by a hostile judge Mr Justice Joyce.

The Solicitors Act 1843 included the sentence, 'every Word importing the Masculine Gender only shall extend and be applied to a Female as well as a Male'.

Nettlefold left law, Costelloe became a psychoanalyst, Bedd died, but Crofts became the first woman lawyer and a partner in the law firm of Crofts, Ingram and Wyatt & Co.[7] In 1939, when war broke out, two women were appointed to lead the reformed Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS).

She and two others had to present a minority report as the commission would not support their position of equal pay for women as a recommendation.