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Â鶹´«Ã½AV Vault: Breaking a Historic Gender Barrier
Â鶹´«Ã½AV Vault

Â鶹´«Ã½AV Vault: Breaking a Historic Gender Barrier

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On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced his nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor for the position of U.S. Supreme Court justice -- a landmark for women. A Â鶹´«Ã½AV poll conducted 10 days later found 86% of Americans saying they approved of a woman serving on the high court.

Approval of a Woman Serving on U.S. Supreme Court
President Reagan has nominated a woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you approve or disapprove of a woman serving on the Supreme Court?
  Jul 17-20, 1981
  %
Approve 86
Disapprove 8
No opinion 6
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Further, although 27% of Americans had no opinion about O'Connor's qualifications, almost everyone else -- 69% -- thought the Arizona Court of Appeals judge was "qualified to serve on the Supreme Court." Just 4% disagreed.

These reactions represented a revolution in attitudes toward women compared with what Â鶹´«Ã½AV measured in 1938, days after President Franklin Roosevelt nominated his solicitor general -- Stanley Forman Reed -- for a high court vacancy. Only 37% of Americans then told Â鶹´«Ã½AV they would favor the appointment of "a woman lawyer" to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1945, fewer than half (47%) said they would approve of having "a capable woman on the Supreme Court."

Thirty-five years after O'Connor earned the historic nomination that would make her the first woman on the Supreme Court -- or "FWOTSC," -- and nearly a decade after members of the 110th Congress elected Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House in 2007, Hillary Clinton is in a position to break the ultimate glass ceiling for women, the one leading to the Oval Office. Since 2011, Â鶹´«Ã½AV has consistently found more than nine in 10 Americans saying they would vote for a for president.

These data can be found in .

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