Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1981–2006)
A trailblazer for women in the legal profession and on the bench, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made history as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. After earning her B.A. and LL.B. degrees from Stanford University, she served as a Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County, California, from 1952 to 1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1954 to 1957. From 1958 to 1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965 to 1969. Justice O’Connor was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969 and was subsequently reelected to consecutive two-year terms. In 1975, she was elected Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. Two years later, she was confirmed by Congress in her historic post on the Supreme Court where she served until her retirement in 2006.