Ruth Abrams
Ruth Abrams faced significant hurdles in becoming a lawyer; she was one of only 13 women to graduate from her class at Harvard Law School in 1956. After her first job working in private practice with her brother, she worked in the District Attorney’s office, served as staff counsel for the Supreme Judicial Court, and then as a Superior Court Judge. Abrams became the first woman on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1978. As a judge, Abrams fought for issues including family leave, medical care, gender equity, and minority rights. In her first case on women’s rights, when an insurance company refused to cover medical expenses for pregnancy, she ruled that the company could only do this if they also refused to cover male-specific conditions. A believer in mentoring young women in the field, Abrams often counseled, “Always look back and take another woman with you.” She retired in 2000. Ruth Abrams was honored at the 2001 Women Who Dared event in Boston.
Judge Abrams discusses her family history, her father’s career as a lawyer, and her experience growing up in Newton, Massachusetts. She attended the Choate School for Girls in Brookline and later graduated from Radcliffe College and then Harvard Law School before going into private practice and eventually having a career as a judge with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Abrams reflects on her career path to becoming the first woman on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Throughout her career, she has focused on gender issues and equal rights. Abrams talks about changes in the law profession over the years and the various cases that stand out.
