Interview with Jeanette T. Carrozzella
IntervieweeInterview with
Jeanette T. Carrozzella
American, born 1930
InterviewerInterviewed by
Helen Z. Pearl
American, 1938 - 2015
Date2007 October 10
DimensionsDuration: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes, 33 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of the Connecticut Bar Foundation
DescriptionOral history interview with Jeanette T. Carrozzella who was interviewed by Helen Z. Pearl on October 10, 2007 for the Connecticut Bar Foundation's History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project.
Topics Discussed:
- Background : Jeanette was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 30, 1930. Her parents, George and Ida Tortorice, were Italian immigrants; her father was a printer and her mother a dressmaker.
- Education: Jeanette grew up in Hartford, attended Hartford Public High School, and graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts in 1952, majoring in Government and History.
- Law Interest: She first applied to the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1952 but was intimidated due to the low number of women in law at the time.
- Yale: She then attended Yale School of Nursing for one year but disliked it because she was not interested in biological sciences.
- Law School (1953-1956): She reapplied and was accepted to the University of Connecticut School of Law and attended from 1953 to 1956, graduating in 1956. She was the only woman in her class
- Bar Admission: Jeanette took the Bar Exam in 1956 and was admitted in New Haven at the Superior Court. She also took a Bar Review course.
- Marriage and Early Career: After graduation, Jeanette married Jack Carrozzella, and they had four children. Upon returning to Wallingford, Connecticut, she encountered a law firm that would not accept a woman lawyer. In July 1959, she became the Clerk of the Wallingford Town Court. She served until January 1961 when Town Courts were abolished and became part of the Circuit Court System.
- Career Advancement: Her career primarily involved court administration, advancing as courts merged from Town to Circuit, then Common Pleas, and finally Superior Court.
Her most significant role was as supervisor of all Clerks in the State of Connecticut, where she implemented legislation, notably the erasure law for criminal records.
- Experiences as a Woman in the Legal Profession: Jeanette graduated from law school before the Women's Movement. She received attention and positive impressions as a rare woman lawyer but acknowledged discrimination in firms. She did not face issues with male attorneys or judges as she was not a competitor.
Topics Discussed:
- Background : Jeanette was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 30, 1930. Her parents, George and Ida Tortorice, were Italian immigrants; her father was a printer and her mother a dressmaker.
- Education: Jeanette grew up in Hartford, attended Hartford Public High School, and graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts in 1952, majoring in Government and History.
- Law Interest: She first applied to the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1952 but was intimidated due to the low number of women in law at the time.
- Yale: She then attended Yale School of Nursing for one year but disliked it because she was not interested in biological sciences.
- Law School (1953-1956): She reapplied and was accepted to the University of Connecticut School of Law and attended from 1953 to 1956, graduating in 1956. She was the only woman in her class
- Bar Admission: Jeanette took the Bar Exam in 1956 and was admitted in New Haven at the Superior Court. She also took a Bar Review course.
- Marriage and Early Career: After graduation, Jeanette married Jack Carrozzella, and they had four children. Upon returning to Wallingford, Connecticut, she encountered a law firm that would not accept a woman lawyer. In July 1959, she became the Clerk of the Wallingford Town Court. She served until January 1961 when Town Courts were abolished and became part of the Circuit Court System.
- Career Advancement: Her career primarily involved court administration, advancing as courts merged from Town to Circuit, then Common Pleas, and finally Superior Court.
Her most significant role was as supervisor of all Clerks in the State of Connecticut, where she implemented legislation, notably the erasure law for criminal records.
- Experiences as a Woman in the Legal Profession: Jeanette graduated from law school before the Women's Movement. She received attention and positive impressions as a rare woman lawyer but acknowledged discrimination in firms. She did not face issues with male attorneys or judges as she was not a competitor.
Object number2024.38.32a-e
NotesProject Overview: At the turn of the 20th century, other than Mary Hall, women lawyers were virtually unknown in Connecticut. By contrast, at the turn of the 21st century, law schools were enrolling roughly the same number of women as men. Since their earliest time at the bar, women have become leaders in all areas of the profession at a pace out of all proportion to their brief history and number. In 1999, the Fellows of the Connecticut Bar Foundation initiated the Oral History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project. Within the framework of this dynamic project, the Fellows have been creating a permanent video, audio, and photographic historical record of milestone achievements of women as they have become more visible and achieved prominence in the field of law. In 2019, a leadership donation of $20,000 from the law firm of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey enabled the project to significantly broaden its scope and plan for the future.
Through its first two phases, the project worked with award-winning documentarian Karyl Evans and attorney/photographer Isabel Chenoweth to produce fifty-eight oral history interviews with outstanding female attorneys and 118 portraits of women in the Connecticut judiciary.
The oral history interviews have collected the stories of women whose ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence dismantled barriers that historically prevented women from pursuing careers in the law. Connecticut has benefited from the efforts of these “pioneers” as they enriched the legal profession by joining the ranks of their male peers and paved the way for more women to join the profession. (Source: Connecticut Bar Foundation)
Subject Terms
- Women
- Lawyers
- Women lawyers
- Oral history
- Interview films
- Interview transcripts
- Interviews
- Oral narratives
- Attorneys
- Hartford (Conn.)
- Italians
- Immigrants
- Printers
- Tailors
- Massachusetts
- University of Connecticut
- Yale University
- Nurses
- Law schools
- New Haven (Conn.)
- Wallingford (Conn.)
- Courthouses
- Women's rights
- Family
- Education
- Marriage
- Children
- Motherhood
- Law firms
- Town clerks
- Circuit courts
- Discrimination
- Gender roles
- Interviews and Oral Histories
- History of Connecticut Women in the Legal Profession Project
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