Blog #38

Justice O’Connor was the first woman to be sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. It’s only been 29 years since she broke the gender barrier in such a prestigious organization. She graduated Magna Cum Lade from Stanford University with a degree in Economics and then went on to law school there as well. Interestingly, when I googled her biography and read it, it also included that during the time that she entered the workforce as an attorney, it was indeed difficult for women lawyers to find jobs. This exemplifies that regardless of her stellar academic resume, what held her back was her gender. In addition, her biography also describes her having children and afterwards ‘going back to work part-time’ thus making indicative that even Justice O’Connor was required to make some professional sacrifices to care for her children early in her career. I was impressed to have learned that only five years later, she was appointed to the State Senate but then again, her youngest child would have been kindergarten age and that’s when children spend less time in the home thus permitting a working mother to return to work full-time. Fortunately, for Justice O’Connor, President Reagan had promised to include women in positions of power and authority and thus granted her the appointment as a Justice during his presidency.
Justice O’Connor gained a reputation of being tough and conservative except when it came to women and children rights. She has been named one of the most influential women in America and as a result has had schools renamed after her including the Arizona State University College of Law and the local federal courthouse has also been named after her. She is known for being quoted as saying, “The power I exert on the court depend on the power of my arguments, not on my gender” and “The more education a woman has, the wider the gap between men’s and women’s earnings for the same work.” It is obviously clear that she was aware of the issues facing women in the profession that still need to be addressed.