PHOENIX — Women in Arizona are not only mourning the loss of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor but also taking the time to celebrate the impact she had on their lives.
Recognized as a trailblazer who broke multiple glass ceilings and paved the way for others, O’Connor's legacy has left a deep impact on women in the state and across the country.
O’Connor was the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It was a shock wave for women everywhere, not just in the legal field but that women of any career choice could achieve the pinnacle of their particular fields,” said Sarah Suggs, President and CEO of the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy.
O’Connor was nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but served in other leadership capacities before that, including as an assistant attorney general in Arizona and as state senate majority leader.
“I don’t know if I’d even be sitting here as attorney general if it wasn’t for her service to Arizona and to our country,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said.
Mayes is the first mom and second woman ever to be elected to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
“She had that grit, that stick-to-itiveness that I hope my daughter has, that I hope I had as well. But also in doing that, in showing that grit and blazing those trails, she made it possible for people like me to be in the position that I’m in and to serve Arizonans,” Mayes said.
Before becoming a Supreme Court justice, O’Connor was elected to the Arizona State Legislature and became the first woman majority leader in any state legislature.
“She was such an iconic trailblazer, head and shoulders above anybody else, in a state that is renowned for women leaders,” former Arizona State Senator Kate Brophy McGee said.
McGee remembers O’Connor visiting her in the legislature.
“I would look at people like Sandra Day O’Connor, her sister Ann Day, and say ‘I can do that,’ and she made me believe,” McGee said. “It’s sad, but what a life.”
Paige Martin, an attorney and long-time member of the Arizona Women Lawyers Association, has crossed paths with Justice O’Connor and said she was a role model and gave women courage.
“Women lawyers, even now, face a lot of discrimination. The Arizona Women Lawyers Association exists because we need to exist, which is very unfortunate in many ways, because we need to keep helping women rise to the top of the ranks in their field,” Martin said.
In an interview, O’Connor reflected on being the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice and said it was ‘thrilling’.
“But it’s dreadful if you’re the last,” O’Connor continued. “And if I didn’t do the job well, that’s what would happen.”
She wasn’t the last, but was known for lifting other women up and encouraging them to do the same.
What many women reflected on was her perseverance that got her through her life, which made her death hard to grasp.
“We knew that Justice O’Connor had not been doing well, but somehow - I told someone - I really thought somehow she would be with us forever. She was such a strong person mentally, emotionally, physically,” Retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor said.
McGregor got to know the O’Connors well while working at Phoenix’s Fennemore Craig Law Firm. McGregor was the firm’s first female attorney and met the future Supreme Court justice after finishing her second year of law school.
“She would always talk with everybody and really listen and you just felt like the most important person in the world when she talked to you,” McGregor said.
When O’Connor joined the court, McGregor became her first clerk.
“My feeling was, you know, if a woman lawyer can be a member of the United States Supreme Court, then how is anybody going to say we can’t do anything else?” McGregor said.
When reflecting on being an attorney in the 1980s, McGregor remembers how unusual it was for a woman to be the dean of a law school, or a partner in a law firm. But O’Connor helped change that.
“People got to choose us from whether we were capable or not,” McGregor said. “And for me, it was my year as a clerk was what really convinced me, or made me start thinking about being an appellate judge. Certainly, Justice O’Connor’s support and encouragement along the way made all the difference.”
McGregor sat on the State Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court before serving as its chief justice from 2005 to 2009.
“Justice O’Connor reached down to help everybody else up and that left a responsibility on the next line to help the next ones up,” McGregor said.
That’s what Arizona Supreme Court Vice Chief Justice Ann Timmer credits McGregor with.
“Ruth herself then became the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Arizona and was a great mentor of mine and influence - at least - and encouraged me to apply for the Supreme Court,” Timmer said. “And so those kinds of things, I think, get passed along. So her legacy really will never be entirely known, but it will certainly be felt.”