Houstonâs Original Nasty Woman
Hortense Sparks Ward fought for womenâs rights and permanently changed Texas law in the process.
By
Emma Schkloven
12/14/2020 at 6:00am
Published in the December 2020 issue of
Houstonia
They say well-behaved women seldom make history. Such an expression couldnât be truer of Judge Hortense Sparks Ward, the 20th-century version of todayâs nasty woman, who forever changed the lives of women in Texas during her unprecedented legal career. âStarting in a society that deprived women of legal rights, she worked her way into becoming a lawyer and used her legal background to help give women equal rights to men,â says retired Harris County District Judge Mark Davidson. âBy itself that is a major accomplishment. Doing it in the context of the decade in which she lived, that is a monumental task.â