Sandra Day O'Connor is a pioneer of gender equality.
桑德拉·戴·奥康纳是性别平等的先驱。
Her 1981 appointment as the first female Supreme Court Justice was
1981年,她被任命为第一位女性最高法院法官,
a great leap forward for women nationwide, though she was a reluctant trailblazer.
这对全国女性来说是一个巨大的飞跃,尽管她是一个不情愿的开路先锋。
Well my heart sank, frankly.
坦白地说,我的心沉了下去。
It did. It did.
真的。真的是这样。
I really didn't want it.
我真的不想要。
I'll tell you why.
我来告诉你为什么。
It's fine to be the first to do something major but I didn't wanna be the last.
做第一个干大事的人很好,但我不想做最后一个。
And if I took it and didn't do it, well, it might have been the last and I just thought that was kind of high-risk.
如果我接受了,但没有做,那我可能是最后一个,我只是觉得这有点高风险。
But meeting challenges was in her DNA.
但迎接挑战是她与生俱来的本事。
O'Connor and her siblings were raised on a remote cattle ranch in Arizona,
奥康纳和她的兄弟姐妹在亚利桑那州一个偏远的养牛场长大,
where her parents demanded hard work and resourcefulness.
她的父母要求她努力工作同时足智多谋。
I don't think they had high-expectations of me as such.
我不认为他们对我有很高的期望。
It was just that whatever job I was given to do, I was expected to do it well.
只是不管给我做什么工作,我都需要把它做好。
Now if I did, I never got a thank you or well done, but if I didn't, I sure heard about it. So...
如果我做了,我从来没有得到过谢谢或做得好,但如果我没做,我肯定挨过骂。所以…
O'Connor's journey from the land to the law took her to
奥康纳从土地到法律的经历
Stanford University to study economics and then to Stanford Law School.
让她去了斯坦福大学学习经济学,然后去了斯坦福法学院。
But after graduation, she could not get hired.
但毕业后,她找不到工作。
1% of law students in those days were female across the country.
当时全国1%的法学院学生是女性。
1%. That's what it was at Stanford too.
斯坦福大学里也是1%。
And I was very naive because I never thought for a minute
我很天真,因为我在法学院的时候
when I was in law school that I'd have trouble getting a job.
从来没有想过自己一份工作也找不到。
It never occurred to me.
我从来没想过。
She eventually found some unpaid legal work and from humble beginnings,
她最终找到了一份没有报酬的法律工作,从卑微的开始,
she rose up the ranks, smashing one glass ceiling after another.
一步步晋升,打破了一个又一个的透明障碍。