Professor Mossman's elegantly written group biography of the 187 women called to the bar in Ontario from 1897 to 1957 is the product of a prodigious research effort undertaken over many years. Quiet Rebels is an important contribution to our understanding of the hitherto largely neglected trailblazing efforts of many brave and talented women. Mossman intertwines her group biography of women lawyers with valuable insights into the evolution of legal education and the legal profession in Ontario. Her account pays close attention to the barriers women had to overcome to join and prosper in the profession, including barriers related to class, race and religion. Quiet Rebels is an invaluable resource on Ontario legal history and for the further development of gender equality in the profession. - W. Wesley Pue Prize Committee
Mary Jane Mossman, who is Professor Emeritus at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, has dedicated her career to documenting the experiences of women in law. [Quiet Rebels] is a testament to her rigorous research and commitment to furthering our understanding of the role played by women and gender within the legal profession. Through the stories of these early women lawyers, Mossman not only highlights their individual accomplishments, but provides a nuanced understanding of the broader social and legal changes that shaped their careers. … Quiet Rebels is a remarkable achievement. It is essential reading for anyone in the legal profession. - Patricia McMahon, Journal of Law and Social Policy
This brilliant and innovative ‘group biography’ of pioneering women lawyers in Ontario gives voice to those mostly overlooked women. In doing so, it also sensitively explores the still elusive issues surrounding the relationships between inclusion/diversity and representation/reformulation and asks if what they began was the transformation or merely a slightly altered continuation of the traditional in the legal profession and the practice of law. Highly recommended. - Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Feminism and Legal Theory Project and the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative at Emory University 
Mossman offers a thoroughly researched collective account of Ontario’s early women lawyers’ lives, some sixty years of history that has received limited attention in the past, and weaves it skillfully with wider social and political developments affecting access to higher education and the legal profession … Quiet Rebels is invaluable for anyone with an interest in the patterns of professional women’s lives, gender dynamics, and Canadian legal history. - Mélanie Brunet, Ontario History
Mary Jane Mossman has produced an extraordinary work of scholarship in excavating the details of the 187 women called to the Ontario Bar between 1897 and 1957, as their lives were formerly entombed in silence. While we are familiar with the resistance of the ‘gentleman’s profession’ towards the entry of women, the struggles undergone by individual women to establish a career are less well known. The wealth of detail in this book relating to the impact of class, race, religion, family connections, as well as marriage and children, augments our knowledge of the sustained history of gender injustice in law. - Margaret Thornton, Emerita Professor, Australian National University
Presenting the real-life experiences of the named individuals, this expertly researched work describes vividly the individual challenges experienced by women in legal education and practice.—Yemisi Dina, Legal Information Management (2025) - Legal Information Management
Mossman’s contribution skillfully chronicles progressive changes in the legal profession, while also revealing covert exclusionary patterns that endure for some women lawyers as outsiders by race, class, and religion. - Fiona M. Kay, Canadian Historical Review