 Of the 112 justices , 108 ( 96 @.@ 4 % ) have been men . All Supreme Court justices were males until 1981 , when Ronald Reagan fulfilled his 1980 campaign promise to place a woman on the Court , which he did with the appointment of Sandra Day O 'Connor . O 'Connor was later joined on the Court by Ruth Bader Ginsburg , appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993 . After O 'Connor retired in 2006 , Ginsburg would be joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan , who were successfully appointed to the Court in 2009 and 2010 , respectively , by Barack Obama . The only other woman to be nominated to the Court was Harriet Miers , whose nomination to succeed O 'Connor by George W. Bush was withdrawn under fire . 
