THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

March 26, 1930 – December 1, 2023

“As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”
— Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Address to the 16th Annual Olin Conference: Women in Power, November 14, 1990

Attorney, politician and jurist who was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1981 to 2006. Before her tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge. Prior to that, she was an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of the Arizona Senate.

Photo. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor.