Forty years ago this month, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to join the U.S.
O’Connor’s historic appointment marked a major achievement for women. When she graduated from law school in the early 1950s, firms refused to hire her as a lawyer because she was female. O’Connor persisted, co-founding a law firm in Arizona and going on to become a well-known judge and politician in the state.
She was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and was approved unanimously by the U.S.
O’Connor retired as a justice in 2006. Since then, she has worked to help young Americans learn more about
In the four decades since O’Connor became a justice, four more women have served on the Court. Today three of the nine Supreme Court justices are women.