News Archive
Virginia Dill McCarty, '50, A Woman of Firsts
11/11/2019
Next time you get a chance to look at the portrait at the top of the Inlow Hall grand staircase on the third floor, take some time to ponder the image of Virginia Dill McCarty, '50. She was not the first woman to graduate from IU McKinney, but her life and career was filled with "firsts."
Virginia graduated from the law school with a bachelor of laws degree, an LL.B., which is the equivalent of a juris doctor or J.D. today, in 1950, and first in her class. During law school, she served as Associate Editor of the Indiana Law Journal for the Indianapolis division of the law school.
The first woman to be nominated by any major party for a judgeship in Marion County, Virginia lost that initial race in 1966. Her party, the Democrats, drafted her to run for Indiana Attorney General in 1976, making her the first woman to contend for the job.
In 1971, Virginia co-founded the Indiana Women's Political Caucus and the Greater Indianapolis Women's Political Caucus, and served as the first president of each organization. She was active in the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Indiana in 1977.
The late Senator Birch Bayh recommended Virginia to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana in 1977, and then-President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the post. She served in this role until 1981, making her the first woman in the nation to be appointed and to serve a full, four-year term as a U.S. Attorney.
But Virginia wasn't done with "firsts." In 1983, she became the first woman candidate to run for governor in Indiana. She lost in the Democratic primary, and the incumbent, then-Governor Robert Orr, would go on to be retained in office.
IU McKinney honored Virginia with the first of the Alumnae Network's "Outstanding Alumna of the Year" awards in 2000. She also was the first recipient, in 1996, of the Indiana State Bar Association's Women Lawyers Committee "Women in the Law Achievement Award." She received Indiana University's Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1979, and IU McKinney's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987.
