Catharine Gouger Waugh McCulloch (June 4, 1862 – April 20, 1945) was an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

, and reformer. She actively lobbied for women's suffrage at the local, state, and national levels as a leader in the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, Chicago Political Equality League, and

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National Woma ...

. She was the first woman elected Justice of the Peace in Illinois.

Early life and education

Catharine Waugh was born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

to Susan Gouger and Abraham Miller Waugh. She was of French and Irish ancestry. Raised in Illinois, she graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1882, where she wrote a thesis on women's wages and earned both a B.A. and M.A. degree. Waugh then attended Chicago's Union College of Law (now

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (formerly known as Northwestern University School of Law from 1891 to 2015) is the law school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university. The law school is l ...

). After graduating and passing the bar in 1886, Waugh sought employment in Chicago but faced gender discrimination. She returned to Rockford, Illinois and started her own practice.

Marriage and family

In 1890, Catharine Waugh married her former law school classmate, Frank Hathorn McCulloch. They moved to Chicago and merged practices to form the law firm of McCulloch and McCulloch. Catharine sought equality in her relationship as both a private and political arrangement. According to letters she sent to colleagues, she believed her marriage to McCulloch helped advance her career. She raised four children: Hugh Waugh, Hathorn Waugh, Catharine Waugh, and Frank Waugh.

Career

Women_delegates_to_1912_Republican_National_Convention

McCulloch was a member of the Equity Club, a correspondence network founded in 1887 to provide support, friendship, and advice among women lawyers across the country. In 1888, McCulloch unsuccessfully ran for state's attorney on the Prohibition party ticket. McCulloch began serving as the legislative chair of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association in 1890. After the Illinois Supreme Court upheld a law granting women the right to vote in school district elections in 1891, McCulloch worked on a bill that would ensure women's suffrage for local and presidential elections in the state of Illinois. McCulloch and her colleagues at the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association actively lobbied for the bill from 1893 to 1913, even organizing train and automobile tours to rally suffrage supporters across the state. McCulloch's public-oriented methods of mobilizing supporters through rallies and publications reflected the style of many clubwomen, settlement-house workers, and other

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) was a period in the United States characterized by multiple social and political reform efforts. Reformers during this era, known as progressivism in the United States, Progressives, sought to address iss ...

activists who sought suffrage as a means to advance other reform efforts. Her approach contrasted with that of more conservative members of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association like Grace Wilbur Trout, who preferred more quiet and diplomatic lobbying. In 1894, McCulloch and fellow members of the

Chicago Woman's Club The Chicago Woman's Club was formed in 1876 by women in Chicago who were interested in "self and social improvement." The club was notable for creating educational opportunities in the Chicago region and helped create the first juvenile court in th ...

founded the

Chicago Political Equity League Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

to campaign for municipal suffrage. In addition to her suffrage work, McCulloch advocated for

maternalist reform Maternalist Reforms in the United States were a series of progressive social reform laws passed beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focused on providing state assistance to mothers with young children lacking the financial sup ...

measures. For example, she championed the passage of a law in 1901 that gave women equal guardianship with their husbands over their children. In 1905, she helped raise the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to Human sexual activity, sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is un ...

for girls from 14 to 16 years. McCulloch was elected Justice of the Peace in Evanston, Illinois in 1907 (and re-elected in 1909), making her the first woman elected to that office in Illinois. While a Justice of the Peace, she made national headlines by agreeing to conduct egalitarian marriage ceremonies in which she omitted the word "obey" from the ritualized words the woman was supposed to say; at that time, the man pledged to "love, honor and cherish" while the woman pledged to "love, honor and obey." In 1916, she was the first woman to be nominated by a major party as a

presidential elector In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president in the presidential election. This process is described in ...

. She led the Democratic ticket statewide, winning 950,229 votes — by far the most ever won in an election by a woman to that point. But the Republican victory in Illinois prevented her from actually serving in the

Electoral College An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

. In 1917, she was appointed as a master in

chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

of the Cook County Superior Court. She became known for her advocacy in working to eliminate or modify marriage and divorce laws that discriminated against women, and she worked to create uniformity of such laws in all states. She was the legal adviser for the

(which became the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan American nonprofit political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include Voter registration, registering voters, providing voter information, boosting voter turnout and adv ...

in 1920 after passage of the 19th Amendment) and was its first vice president. She also served as the legal adviser for the National

Women's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far ...

. McCulloch died of cancer in 1945 at the age of 82. Catharine W. McCulloch Park in Evanston is named for her.

Publications

* Bittenbender, Ada M. "Women in Law," in Farmer, Lydia Hoyt. ''The national exposition souvenir: what America owes to women'' Buffalo: C. W. Moulton, 1893. Pages 390–408. * Drysdale, William. "The Woman Lawyer," in Helps for ambitious girls New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., c1900. Pages 180–208. * "Law," in Training for the professions and allied occupations: facilities available to women in the United States. New York: Bureau of Vocational Information, 1924. Pages 427–450. * McCulloch, Catharine Waugh. "Women as Law Clerks" manuscript. c1887. (12 pages). * Bureau of Vocational Information (New York). Records, 1908–1932: A Finding Aid * Mr. Lex, Or The Legal Status of Mother and Child. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1899, 85 pp.

References

External links

* Harvard University Library Open Collections Program. Women Working, 1870–1930
Catharine Gouger Waugh McCulloch (1862-1945).
A full-text searchable online database with complete access to publications written by Catharine McCulloch. * Women's Legal History Biography Project, Robert Crown Library, Stanford Law School

. Biographical articles, collected papers and archival materials.
Papers, 1877-1983.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:McCulloch, Catharine Waugh 1862 births 1945 deaths Illinois lawyers Suffragists from Illinois Illinois state court judges Rockford University alumni Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni American women judges Temperance activists from Illinois 19th-century American women lawyers 19th-century American lawyers National American Woman Suffrage Association activists