She even ordered custom T-shirts that read W omen Work Out at the Supreme Court. O’Connor also took ownership of another boys’ room: the basketball court above the courtroom, jokingly called “the highest court in the land.” She wanted to exercise, and after she heard that other women in the building-secretaries and a few lone female clerks-did too, she reserved the gym and asked the local YWCA to send an aerobics teacher. So she commandeered a nearby restroom instead. The closest ladies’ room required O’Connor to walk down an endless hallway. Neither did more pragmatic concerns, including the fact that nobody had ever thought to place a women’s restroom near the courtroom-because for 191 years, only men had sat on the Supreme Court. “This is a job for a man and only he can make rough decisions.” “Back to your kitchen and home female!” read one letter. Not to mention nearly 10,000 missives from citizens across the nation-packages of hand-knit socks, family pictures, homemade fudge. Her new office was already littered with briefs and cert requests. The day before, on September 25, 1981, she had been sworn in as the first woman on the Supreme Court. Supreme Court, transforming a 191-year-old all-boys’ club and paving the way for female lawyers across the country. Mental Floss magazine profiled how the Arizona cowgirl rose to become the first woman on the U.S. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently announced that she is withdrawing from public life.
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