Same Day, Different Century

The First Woman on the Bench

Zach Ipsen

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 9:24

On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to nominate Sandra Day O'Connor to the United States Supreme Court. Nearly two centuries after the Court began its work, no woman had ever sat on its bench. Raised on a remote Arizona cattle ranch and once turned away by law firms that would only hire her as a secretary, O'Connor built a record that carried her to the pinnacle of American law.