First : Sandra Day O'Connor
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 414-447) and index.

"The biography of America's first female Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, based on exclusive interviews and access to her Supreme Court archives. She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her class at law school in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O'Connor's story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings -- doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and toughness. She became the first-ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona State Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the Supreme Court, appointed by Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. [A] portrait of a woman who loved her family and believed in serving her country, and who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for other women to follow." --,Provided by publisher.