Dolly Gee, a Los Angeles attorney, will become the first Chinese-American woman to serve as a U.S. District Court judge, a newspaper report said on Saturday.

Gee, the daughter of immigrants from a small village in Southern China, won the Senate confirmation on Christmas Eve, the Los Angeles Times reported.

She was nominated by President Barack Obama in August.

In 1994, then President Bill Clinton appointed Gee, a past president of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, to serve as a mediator and arbitrator in disputes between federal agencies and labor unions. Clinton also nominated her for the federal bench in 1999, but she was unable to win confirmation from a gridlocked Senate before he left office.

"As a daughter of immigrants from rural China, she personifies the American dream," Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said in a news statement. "She used her position as a prominent attorney in Los Angeles to promote racial tolerance and fight for justice for those who face discrimination."

Gee's father was a World War II veteran who later worked as an aerospace engineer on projects including the space shuttle and the Apollo missions, according to a statement released by Boxer's office.