Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O’Connor is the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the nation. Born in 1930, O’Connor grew up on the Lazy B ranch, her family’s vast cattle ranch on the Arizona-New Mexico border. Encourage by her grandmother to believe that she “could do whatever she wanted to do,” O’Connor gave up her childhood dream of being a cowgirl and pursued a law career. In 1952, she graduated from Stanford University Law School and married fellow student John O’Connor, with whom she would have three sons. Before becoming a Supreme Court justice in 1981, O’Connor worked as a lawyer, an Arizona State Senate majority leader, and a judge. At the time of her appointment to the Court she commented: “I think the important thing about my appointment is not that I will decide cases as a woman, but that I am a woman who will get to decide cases.”