Role models are important to everyone. Everyone has had a role model, especially as children. Whether it was a Disney princess, a president, or a parent, there was always someone for children to look up to.
As you grow up, your role models change throughout the progression of your life. As a little girl, I looked up to Disney Princesses (Ariel in particular) whereas now I look up to Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Connor is one of the most influential people in modern-day history, and she has shown women for decades how to be strong and educated.
O’Connor is not as well known as she should be. Not only was she the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, but she has shown other women to be strong for her entire life. After being born in Texas on March 26, 1930, she graduated high school at the age of 16. After graduation, she attended Stanford to pursue a law degree. In this period, women faced lots of discrimination when it came to earning an education. The National Woman’s Suffrage Association was disbanded in 1920, and O’Connor was born a short 10 years later. Due to this, she faced lots of backlash for her intelligence and her desire to attend school, especially at a top school like Stanford. Stanford was a male-dominated institution, but despite adversity, O’Connor still graduated third out of her class of 102 people. After her graduation, O’Connor went on to pursue her law degree and eventually started to work for the state of Arizona as an assistant attorney general.
After years of climbing the ranks within the system, Sandra Day O’Connor was nominated to sit on the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagen in 1981. O’Connor, as influential as she is, is hardly known by most people. Compared to Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (more widely known as RBG) Sandra Day O’Connor is more of a name instead of the important woman she is. When asked, students and teachers were mostly not familiar with her work.
Camryn Mager recalls being “familiar” with Sandra Day O’Connor, but not knowing much about her. Nor did Aleah Johnston, Presley McFarland, or Henley Dennis. Although they had not known her life story or her accomplishments, McFarland, Johnson, Dennis, and Mager were all familiar with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So, why is one Justice more widely known than the other?
“RBG is more recently known, and spoke on more controversial topics that relate more to Generation Z, and people our age,” said Mager. “I do believe that it is important for people to learn about Sandra Day O’Connor and her life, though.”
Upon asking high school history teacher Ben Perman, he thinks that maybe people are more aware of the more current Justices instead of the ones from the past.
After a quick refresher, Perman was familiar with Justice O’Connor. “Yes, I think that people should learn about her. She is very influential and inspiring for her educational success and her career success,” said Perman.
Learning about Sandra Day O’Connor is not just learning about her life and her accomplishments in the world, it is about acknowledging the accomplishments of women in this country. Justice O’Connor opened up doors for women all over the country to see that their gender has no affiliation with their skills or knowledge.
During one of O’Connor’s speeches given in 2004, she said, “But Ronald Reagan knew that his decision wasn’t about Sandra Day O’Connor; it was about women everywhere. It was about a nation that was on its way to bridging a chasm between genders that had divided us for too long.”
The history of Sandra Day O’Connor encourages people everywhere to strive for their dreams, reach for the stars, and push past adversity. Although O’Connor passed away in 2023, her legacy will continue to live on. O’Connor’s birthday is the 26 of March, 1930 and although we do not recognize her on her true birthday, we still recognize her. Her official date of celebration is September 25, which is the date she was sworn into the US Supreme Court.
