Sandra Day O'Connor to Supreme Court

In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve as a justice of the United States Supreme Court after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan, who had pledged during his campaign to appoint a woman to the Court. A graduate of Stanford Law School, O'Connor had served as an Arizona state senator and as a state judge before her elevation to the nation's highest court. The Senate confirmed her unanimously, and she took her seat that September.

O'Connor's appointment broke a barrier that had stood since the Court's creation, making her the first woman among the justices in nearly two centuries of the institution's history. Over her career she became an influential swing vote on a closely divided Court, often casting decisive votes in cases involving abortion, affirmative action, and other contested issues. Her tenure, which lasted until her retirement in 2006, opened the federal judiciary's highest level to women.