Arlene Violet made history in 1985 by becoming the first female attorney general in Rhode Island — and the nation.

She brought with her gumption cultivated as a nun with the Sisters of Mercy, can-do spirit learned at home, and insight from years working with the inner-city poor.

But before she took the historic title as the state’s first and still only female chief law enforcement officer, she ranked among a handful of trailblazing women to head to law school at a time when they were vastly outnumbered by men.

“My family always raised us that we could do anything, so when I went to law school. I didn’t think anything untoward about going there,” Violet, 75, of Barrington, said in a recent interview.