Mary Philbrook

The New Jersey Supreme Court initially refused Philbrook's petition in 1894 on the grounds that no other woman in the state had ever sought admission to the bar.

[1] As a result, she is known as a prominent New Jersey woman in the fight for equal rights Philbrook was born in Washington, D.C., on August 6, 1872.

Her father had a successful law practice in New York City, and her mother was a descendant of Isaac Stearns, who came from England to Salem, MA in 1630.

Philbrook worked as a stenographer and gained early legal experience at two law offices in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Philbrook volunteered to be counsel for the Legal Aid Society at Cornelia Bradford's Whittier House in lower Jersey City.

During the suffrage campaign, Philbrook supported the militant activism of Alice Paul and her National Woman's Party in Washington, D.C. After writing the passage of the 19th Amendment, Philbrook worked with Alice Paul on the passage of the equal rights amendment.