Washington Area Women's Foundation

Women’s History Month Q&A – March 6, 2014

Q: Who was the first female Supreme Court Justice?

A: Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1981, making her the first female Supreme Court Justice.

In response to an editorial in The New York Times which mentioned the “nine old men” of the Court,Sandra Day O’Connor, the self-styled FWOTSC (First Woman On The Supreme Court), sent a letter to the editor stating:

“Is no Washington name exempt from shorthand? One, maybe. The Chief Magistrate responsible for executing the laws is sometimes called the POTUS [President of the United States].

The nine men who interpret them are often the SCOTUS [Supreme Court of the United States].
The people who enact them are still, for better or worse, Congress.

According to the information available to me, and which I had assumed was generally available, for over two years now SCOTUS has not consisted of nine men. If you have any contradictory information, I would be grateful if you would forward it as I am sure the POTUS, the SCOTUS and the undersigned (the FWOTSC) would be most interested in seeing it.”