Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label First Indian Woman Barrister

First Indian Woman Barrister

Cornelia Sorabji (15 November 1866 – 6 July 1954) was the first female barrister from India, a social reformer, and a writer. She was also the first female graduate from Bombay University, and the first woman in the world to read law at Oxford.Sorabji was born at Nashik in the Bombay Presidency, India, on 15 November 1866. She was one of nine children of Reverend Sorabji Karsedji, a Parsi Christian, and his wife, Francina Ford, an Indian who had been adopted and raised by a British couple. Ford, who believed that education must begin at home with women, helped to establish several girls’ schools in Poona (now Pune). Due in part to her influential social position, Ford was often consulted by local women in matters pertaining to inheritance and property rights. Many of Sorabji’s later educational and career decisions would be heavily influenced by her mother. As a child Sorabji received her education both at home, with her missionary father, and at mission schools. In 1...