Katie Couric
To many, Justice O'Connor has been an icon of intellect and equality ever since she took her place on the bench more than 20 years ago. But sitting down with her I also found a humble, relaxed and at times very funny woman who readily admits to once having some mixed feelings about her place in history.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
The phone rang and it was President Reagan. Sandra. I'd like to announce your nomination to the court tomorrow. Is that alright with you? And I didn't know if it was it or not.

Katie Couric
For Sandra Day O'Connor, it was hard to believe the choice was hers. She could become perhaps the most influential woman in the country. But she wasn't so sure she was the right person for the job. They were scared.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Yes, I was concerned about whether I could do the job well enough to deserve saying yes,

Katie Couric
a very rare and candid admission from a member of the most exclusive and reclusive club in America. The first woman on the Supreme Court is a pretty daunting title. Did you think about how important that was for women everywhere?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Of course, the minute I was confirmed, and on the court, states across the country started putting more women on and had ever been the case on their supreme courts. And it made a difference in the acceptance of young women as lawyers. It opened doors for them. Here we go. Okay, so

Katie Couric
Sandra Day O'Connor has been opening well, gently pushing doors open all her life, sometimes without even knowing it. Born Sandra Day 71 years ago, she traces her pioneering spirit back to her childhood. Growing up on the lazy be the name of the family cattle ranch along the Arizona New Mexico border. An isolated lonely Place where O'Connor's main companions were books, and cowboys. There were not other children with whom to play. And I didn't have a brother and sister for about 10 years and was an only child in this rather godforsaken place. But this rather godforsaken place and the people who live there would shape Sandra Day in ways that would resonate throughout her life. She says her mother called mo made a hard life look easy, adding style and sophistication to the ranch with subscriptions to Vogue, The New Yorker and National Geographic. She taught Sandra to read when she was just four. She describes her father who everyone called da as intelligent, curious and friendly to everyone and the epitome of self reliance.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
He had to build house he had to Dr. The cattle, even Dr. King Hello boys on occasion and the rest of us if something went wrong

Katie Couric
in her new book lazy be that O'Connor wrote with her brother Alan. she recalls not only her parents, but the other man who would play a crucial role in her life. The Cowboys, he described them as tobacco chewing, unshaven inveighed Levi clad and tough as nails right? They sound like they come straight out of Central Casting. Well, they did.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
But they kind of enjoyed having a little girl around to tease and play with I think,

Katie Couric
and it wouldn't be long before they were all playing Home on the Range. Before you wrote on the roundups, it had been an all male domain right and you say that you've been breaking down all male barriers remember ever said intent on giving her a good education. Beginning and kindergarten Sandra's parents centered a school in El Paso, Texas, where she lived with her grandmother and soared academically. She skipped two grades and graduated from high school 16 She then headed to Stanford, majoring in economics. And finally on to Stanford Law, where she was one of six women in her class. Clearly, she had proven that she could handle anything on the ranch. But it was harder to prove that she could handle the then male dominated world of law.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I was shocked. I think I was naive. I had never stopped to think that it might be hard to get a job.

Katie Couric
She found that it was when she tried to get hired as a lawyer in the 1950s,

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
a partner who interviewed me said, Mr. Jay, how do you type? And I said, well, fail, not great. get by. And he said, Well, if you can type well enough, I might be able to get you a job here as a legal secretary. But we've never hired a woman as a lawyer here and we don't anticipate that we will be doing.

Katie Couric
undeterred. She kept on trying, eventually landing a job with the Attorney General in Northern California. Over the course of her career, she would open a small firm in Phoenix work as a state judge and give politics a try becoming the first female state senate majority leader in the nation. Along the way, she would spend five years as a full time mom, raising her three sons, Scott, Brian and Jay. But nothing would prepare her for what was on the docket in 1981. a vacancy was created when Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart retired O'Connor, then a state appeals court judge was summoned to Washington to discuss the job. After a 40 minute get acquainted chat in the Oval Office, O'Connor returned to Arizona.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I got on the airplane and sat down and took a big breath and said, My that was an interesting time to go to Washington. But thank goodness, I don't have to do that job. Why did you think you hadn't gotten I was sure that I wouldn't be asked. I just thought it was so unlikely and so I breathed a big sigh Afraid like, what about a woman?

Katie Couric
But three days later, she'd have to catch her breath again. When President Reagan called to offer her the job. Suddenly, all eyes were on Sandra Day O'Connor. 20 years after she was sworn in, her views are still analyzed and dissected and, to the fascination of court watchers, almost impossible to predict.