Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose funeral was last week, was the sort of woman I wanted to be long before I knew her name. Decades before President Ronald Reagan selected her in 1981 to keep a political promise, she was storming the heavily guarded gates that kept women from fully participating in American society. Thereafter, I became my father’s apprentice and often heard him speak of a mythical woman he referred to as “a great broad” — with admiration in his gravelly voice and a twinkle in his green, Irish eyes. “A great broad” was my father’s highest compliment. I didn’t know what one looked like, and wasn’t even sure what one was, but I kept a wary eye out in case one happened by.

Source: Washington Post December 26, 2023 13:18 UTC