All for Her Younger Self

In 1996, Julia Bates made history as the first elected female Lucas County Prosecutor, but her story of breaking barriers did not start there.

Bates had many years of ups and downs to get where she is today, largely tying back to the fact that she is a woman in what was a predominantly male-led field.

Her early years

From when she was in eighth grade, Bates knew she wanted to go to law school. “I wrote a term paper about it. I always wanted to go to law school. I had a little gavel on my charm bracelet when I was in high school,” Bates relates, adding, “I went to Wittenberg University, earning a degree …, and I decided I was going to go to law school.”

Bates took the LSAT and then faced the first of many struggles based on her gender when she went to her advisor for guidance. “I asked my advisor where I should apply and he said, ‘Law school is no place for girls. Be a nurse, be a teacher, but law school is not for
girls.’ I thought, ‘Oh, interesting.’ So I still applied to all [law] schools in Cleveland and I got in,” Bates said. “I got cold feet at the last minute. I kept hearing that advising professor saying, ‘It’s no place for girls,’ and I thought, ‘Do I really want to do this? Should I really do this? Maybe I shouldn’t do this. Maybe I’m not smart enough.’ My dad was encouraging me. He drove me to pay the tuition for my first semester, but I didn’t go. I got married instead.”

After marrying she and her then husband moved to Bowling Green. Bates worked at a bank. She didn’t like the banking life so she applied to law school at the University of Toledo.

“The marriage didn’t last long, because the boy was not so much interested in having a wife who was in law school. He wanted somebody to cook and do the laundry,” Bates said. “I was in law school and I was really liking it. So I ended up staying in law school, became a lawyer and I started working here [Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office] as an intern.”

During her internship, Bates faced another challenge due to sexual inequality in the office.

“He [an ex-coworker] says to me, ‘If you want a job here, you will go with me as my date to the retirement party for the boss.’ This is the boss that’s gonna retire and the other guy’s going to then become the prosecutor… He says to wear my sexiest black dress, he’s
going pick me up at 7pm. I did not want to go, and I didn’t,” Bates said.

“The next day… I get called into the big boss’s office… He says, ‘I understand [he] was asking you for a date.’

I said, ‘I don’t want to get anybody in trouble. I just didn’t wanna go on a date.’ He says, ‘You’re hired.’ Just like that.”

Viewing today and the future

After working her way up from being an intern to becoming the elected Lucas County prosecutor, Bates has brought change to the office. Changes that would have helped her younger self succeed more quickly.

“This is the prosecutor’s office in (the late 1970’s): old, white men,” Bates said. “Now we have men, we have women, we have gay people, we have Muslims, we have Jewish people, we have African Americans, we have Hispanics, we have everything; we’re very diverse.”

Looking back, as one of a few women in her law school class to becoming the first elected female Lucas County Prosecutor, Bates says she didn’t do it all for herself; it was for the women who come after her.

“It feels great, but I think it’s something that we have done for our daughters,” Bates said.

When thinking about the 30 years of her term, Bates believes this will be her last one. “I’m still here. I have two more years left in this term… Anything can happen, so I hate to say it, but I think I’ve had a good run. 50 years is a long time to be in a job. There’s a lot of wonderful young people who could do this job really well,” Bates explains.

Q&A with Julia Bates

My Secret Ambition: I want to learn French. I’ve been to France many times with my daughter, but I don’t speak it.

Last Book Read: One that I just read that I thought was really interesting was called ‘Judge Stone’ and it’s by Viola Davis and Jame Patterson.

What advice would you give to the younger you: Don’t give up. Follow your dream, because I did.

What did you learn from your parents: My mother was in World War II. She was a soldier in London and Paris. My mother was very much a glass-half-full kind of girl, too.

She saw buildings bombed when she was stationed in London. She saw a lot of devastation… Her stories and her journey were inspiring to me.

My mother had all these ‘momisms’ like, ‘be careful what you wish for.’ ‘God closes a door, you always open a window.’ ‘There’s always a rainbow after the rain.’ All these things that she said resonate with me about how to live your life.

What makes you happy now: I play in a golf league; I do yoga quite a bit; I attend a book club; I do a lot of travelling; I visit my kids