Whereas Sandra Day O’Connor was born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas, and spent her childhood on her family’s isolated Arizona cattle ranch; Whereas O’Connor lived with her grandmother in El Paso during the school year, away from her home and parents; Whereas O’Connor matriculated to Stanford University at the age of 16 and combined her undergraduate and law school curricula, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree in just 6 years; Whereas O’Connor graduated third in her law school class, behind William Rehnquist, her future colleague on the Supreme Court of the United States (referred to in this preamble as the Supreme Court ); Whereas, despite her qualifications, O’Connor could not find work as an attorney because of bias against women in the law; Whereas O’Connor ended up negotiating for an unpaid position in the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office at a shared desk, while her husband, John, finished at Stanford Law School 1 year later; Whereas O’Connor traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, in 1954 with her husband John, who had joined the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and she was able to find work as a civilian attorney with the United States Army Quartermaster Corps; Whereas, in 1957, O’Connor returned to Arizona and still could not find work with a traditional law firm due to her gender, so she hung out a shingle as a sole practitioner; Whereas, in 1965, O’Connor was hired as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona; Whereas O’Connor was active in Republican Party politics and was well-received for her work at the Arizona Attorney General's Office, which resulted in her appointment to an Arizona State Senate seat in 1969 when the incumbent, also a woman, was appointed to a Federal position and vacated the office; Whereas, in 1970, O’Connor was elected to the Arizona State Senate and served 2 consecutive terms