Sandra Day Research Paper

On March 26, 1930, a woman who would change the world for all of women was born. Her name was Sandra Day. Sandra Day was born on a cattle ranch in El Paso, Texas. After a few years of her life, she moved to Arizona to live with her grandmother, who thought she needed a proper education. Her family then moved with her to live on the “Lazy B”, their new Arizona cattle ranch. Having grown up on a ranch, she had always dreamed to become a rancher. For a woman, it was hard to become a rancher at the time, like trying to get in to the Supreme Court. No matter, she worked hard for her dream.

From the beginning, Sandra Day was a very smart and talented woman. After being sent to the Radford School for Girls, she finally got to go to a public school,

Austin High. Sandra graduated from Austin High at the young age of 16. She attended Stanford University and majored in economics. One of her professors was a judge, and that’s how she was inspired to apply to the law school at Stanford. The probability of her getting in was very low because she was woman. In 1946, she got accepted to Stanford Law. Sandra joined a program that helped her finish two degrees in 6 years, instead of 7. She graduated in 1950 with her bachelor’s degree and finally received her law degree in 1952. Sandra graduated 3rd in her class in a class of 102. Sandra Day had a found a new dream, a dream that would soon take her far.
While studying hard at Stanford, she had time to find her true love that would help her on her journey. She married John O’Connor in December 1952. They moved to California where Sandra wasted no time trying to get a job. She applied to many practices, but was never offered a job because she was a woman. She was given a job as the secretary at a practice, but she refused because it wasn’t at all what she had asked for. She finally took a position as a county attorney in San Mateo, California. She then moved to Germany with her husband, where she became an attorney there also. After moving back to the U.S, they moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Sick of not having a job as a lawyer, she set up her own successful law practice with one of her friends. In 1965, she went back to being an attorney. That led her to take on the job of state governor, a position that had never been filled by a woman. Sandra Day O’Connor wasn’t letting anything stop her.
The presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan would help Sandra Day O’Connor get to the highest job in her career, the Supreme Court.

In Reagan’s campaign, he needed more women voters to help him. He promised that if he was elected, he would elect a woman to the Supreme Court. Sandra saw the chance and jumped right in to make herself recognized. In 1981, Reagan was elected president and kept his promise. In his speech he spoke, “I made a commitment that one of my first appointments to the Supreme Court vacancy would be the most qualified woman that I could possibly find. Now, this is not to say that I would appoint a woman merely to do so. That would not be fair to women nor to future generations of all Americans whose lives are so deeply affected by decisions of the Court. Rather, I pledged to appoint a woman who meets the very high standards that I demand of all court appointees. I have identified such a person.” That person was none other than Sandra Day O’Connor. The senate quickly voted her in. She was the first person to be appointed in twenty-four years with state court experience and the first in thirty-two years with a lawmaking experience. Sandra Day O’Connor had a giant influence on women’s rights when she won this

position.
Sandra Day O’Connor changed the world for women because she achieved a spot in one of the top jobs in America and was the first woman to do it. Sandra served in the Supreme Court from 1981 to 2006. In 2009, Sandra was recognized for her work and got the highest civilian honor from President Barack Obama. She was known for her diligence and integrity in the Court. She said, “Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.” Sandra was once at the bottom because she was a woman. But, she followed her own advice and did things to just pass the time until she rose to her full power. Sandra Day O’Connor was not afraid of criticism and didn’t stop her from doing what she wanted to do.