Testing the System: Sandra Day O´Connor

Sandra Day O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas in 1930. Her parents owned a cattle ranch in Southeastern Arizona. She went to school in El Paso while she lived with her grandmother. O’Connor graduated high school at the age of sixteen. In 1946, O’Connor was accepted into Stanford. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree. O’Connor graduated third in her class at Stanford. O’Connor tried to become a lawyer in Los Angeles and San Francisco law firms but could not because she was a woman. Instead, she was offered a job as a legal secretary ("Sandra Day O'Connor Biography”). It was very difficult for O’Connor to find a job because she was a woman (Beard). She became a county attorney in California and married John O’Connor. They moved to Germany and her husband was an attorney for the U. S. Army. O’Connor was a civilian attorney. When they

made it possible for herself to go to college and get a law degree. "I want to go the

Completing her education Anne is broke and hungry, but doesn't care for a real job. Anne prefers to work in the movement, where she can work to fight the injustices of racial inequality, working with the movement Anne feel more accepted and at home with her fellow activists than ever

Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 27, 1954 in The Bronx, New York. Her parents Juan Sotomayor and Celina Baez were both natives of Puerto Rico; they worked as a manual worker and a nurse respectively. She was raised in the Bronxdale Houses; a city owned housing projects. When Sonia was nine her father passed away, due to his early death her mother was forced to work extra days to get her children in a good school, which she did. Her mother's hard work payed off when she managed to send her children to a private Catholic school. Sonia attended Cardinal Spellman High School and graduated as the valedictorian of her class in 1972.

The Testing trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau is a thrilling story about who to trust in a world that is unpredictable. The series consists of the books The Testing, Independent Study, and Graduation day, all of which follow the main character Malencia Vale, or Cia for short. The main point I found throughout these three is being careful about who you can trust. Because of this I chose a moralist type of criticism. It has a lot to do with how the characters are feeling even though it is the society that is corrupt so I found that this fit. I thought while reading these books that most of it was very well written and that the world building was spectacular. Though there is a romance portion that isn't done very well until the third book. Also I have seen argued that the characters don't seem very realistic emotion wise. I feel that the story was very well done but that the emotions didn’t seem realistic in every character that you came across.

O'Connor again found it difficult to obtain a position with any law firm so she decided to start her own firm with a single partner. She practiced a wide variety of small cases in her early days as a lawyer since she lacked specialization and an established reputation. After she gave birth to her second son, O'Connor withdrew from work temporarily to care for her children. She became involved in many volunteer activities during this time. She devoted much of her time to the Arizona State

how badly she wanted to go to law school and what she would do in

Dorothea Dix was born on April 4, 1802. She was born in Hampden, Maine. Even though she grew up less fortunate and in a broken home, she managed to get an education and become internationally known for her kindness and assistances to the mentally ill population. She started off as a simple school teacher but ended up changing the world by contributing to the medical field. Her work was known international.

The isolated ranch made formal education difficult so O'Connor's parents sent her to live with her maternal grandmother in El Paso. Sandra went to the Radford School, a private academy for girls, from kindergarten through high school. Suffering from extreme homesickness, she stopped going and returned to Arizona for a year. Still, she graduated with good marks at the age of sixteen. O'Connor gives credit much to her grandmother for being such a great influence on her. She credits her grandmother's confidence in her ability to succeed as her motivation for refusing to admit defeat.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811 in a town in Connecticut called Litchfield. Her parents were Reverend Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote Beecher, who wanted their children to influence the world in some way. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s family based their philosophies on social justice. Some of the Beecher’s children were ministers, teachers in education for women, the youngest daughter was founder of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, and Harriet was the writer of the family (Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Life). Stowe was part of eleven siblings born to her parents. Harriet Beecher Stowe later died on June 1, 1896 in her own home in Hartford, Connecticut (biography.com).

Flannery O’Connor was born Mary Flannery O’Connor on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia, as the only child to Edward F. O’Connor, Jr., and Regina (Cline) O’Connor. Later in 1941, Flannery O’Connor’s father dies of lupus while O’Connor is in Milledgeville, Ga. After her father’s death, O’Connor rarely speaks of him and continues to be active in school projects such as drawing, reading, writing, and playing instraments. Further, in the summer of 1942, O’Connor graduates and enters Georgia State College for Women as a sociology and English major. Moreover, O’Connor took on the name Flannery O’Connor, dropping Mary from her signature.

She studied government at American University. She then studied law at Washington College of Law. She was the only female in a class of 126. She passed her bar examination in 1965. Her first job was a corporate lawyer for a cosmetics firm.

Oveta Culp Hobby is known for her many achievements. She was “the first director of the Women’s Army Corps” and built an army from nothing (Farrar). Later on, she became a cabinet member for President Eisenhower and was the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. We remember her today because she is the reason why women received opportunities to join the army (Oveta Culp Hobby). Frances Farenthood was a lawyer and politician from Texas. She was the runner-up vice-president candidate to be nominated for that position for the election of 1972, making her the first woman to actually be viable for this position (it was very close, she lost at 48% of votes) Also, she campaigned for governor of Texas twice, but lost. (Frances 'Sissy ' Farenthold). Texas’ second female governor, Ann Richards left a huge impact on the Lone Star State. She fought for women’s and minorities’ rights and was well-liked by many people because of her humor and wittiness. Even after failing to be re-elected (she lost to George W. Bush), she still cared about the people very much and continued to speak about equal rights for all (Ann Richards Biography). Barbara Jordan was the first African American congresswoman and first African American in the Texas Senate. Another highlight about her life was that she was also the first African American women to deliver the keynote

Without a college degree, it is very difficult to get a financially stable job. To get a college degree you need some sort of income to pay for your schooling. She did not have a degree and ended up working for 7 dollars an hour or less. The work was both stressful and degrading.

In the past 3 decades, women made great advancements in the workforce. First, they have become an integral part of the labour market; they have access to higher education and consequently to traditionally male dominated professions such as medicine, law and business. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is not clear however, whether they have achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. In this paper, I will examine women’s experiences in the law profession; whether women are earning equal salary compared to the male lawyers, do they still face barriers that are gender related and whether they have broken the glass ceiling in a profession that is supposed to be