How Did Sandra Day O Connor's Impact On Arizona History

Throughout Arizona’s history many remarkable women have made an impact on Arizona, such as Placida Smith, who taught and helped non-citizens of the United States to become legal; Veora Johnson, who was the first African American woman to have obtain administrative credentials in Arizona and Sister Kathleen Clark, who was nun who created a shelter for children who were abused and neglected called Casa de los Ninos. These are just some of the few important women in Arizona’s history. But one of the most influence and important women of Arizona history by far would have to be Sandra Day O’Connor.

Sandra Day O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26th 1930 to the parents of Harry Day and Ada Mae Wilkey. She was the oldest of three children;

Despite all the odds against her, Sandra was accepted into Stanford. Economics was originally the major that Sandra chose but after a legal dispute occurred over the Lazy-B Ranch, she had an interest in law and enrolled in law school at Stanford. It was at Stanford Law School that she met her husband John Jay O’Connor. She then graduated from law school in 1952, third in a class with 102 students. Although she graduated third in her class Sandra had a lot difficulty finding a job in California, because she was a women and no law firm would hire her. She eventually accepted a public service position as the deputy county attorney for San Mateo (“Sandra Day O’Connor”). Around this time she married her husband John Jay O’Connor. Immediately following his graduation of law school he was deployed to Frankfurt, Germany to serve in the war. “Sandra Day O’Connor moved to Germany with her husband and served as a U.S. Army attorney working as a civilian attorney but specializing in contracts” (“Sandra Day O’Connor

In Phoenix, Sandra and another lawyer opened up their own law firm. But during this time, 1957 to 1969, Sandra focused on raising her three sons. After having her second son she withdrew from work temporarily to raise her children. So instead she became very active in Republican politics and joined many groups during this time period in order to better her community, which she loved. She began to volunteer also during this time, such as volunteering at the Arizona State Hospital, Arizona State Bar, Salvation Army and many schools. After five years of raising her three boys, Scott, Brian and Jay O’Connor, O’Connor was a full time employ as Arizona’s assistant attorney general and the chief law officer of the state’s assistant. Governor Jack Williams appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to become the new state senator in 1969 because the previous one had resigned. Then when running for re-election in 1970 for state senator Sandra won by a landslide and in 1972 she was the republic majority leader; and was the first woman to ever hold that position in the entire country. “She defended her position very successfully for two more terms and eventually became the majority leader; the first women in the whole U.S.” (“Sandra Day O’Connor”) Republicans leaders in Arizona attempted to persuade Sandra to run for governor in 1978 but she polite dismissed that idea. Then by 1974 Sandra became the county