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Allen came of age before women had the right to vote in the US (which they earned with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919) but would go on to study law and break serious gender boundaries with every step of her judiciary career. She became the first woman on a state supreme court when she was appointed to Ohio’s in 1922. In 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt named her to the US Court of Appeals, making her the first federal woman judge in the US and launching twenty-five years of service. Less remarked upon is the fact that Allen was a music journalist before her judiciary career.

In 1981 O’Connor was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be the first woman US Supreme Court justice. The Senate confirmed her unanimously. Besides a career in law and as a justice, she was the country’s first woman majority leader as a Republican in the Arizona Senate. She did not always express the opinions one might expect for a Republican-appointed judge, and sometimes supported abortion rights—as when she voted against a requirement that women tell their husbands before aborting—and campaign finance laws. She retired in 2006 to take care of her Alzheimer’s-afflicted husband.

The Notorious RBG, as she was dubbed after publishing a fiery dissent to the Supreme Court’s 2013 curtailing of the Voting Rights Act, has become the subject of many a headline. She faced early difficulties in getting any job in the legal system other than secretary. But by the time President Bill Clinton nominated her in 1993 to be the second woman on the country’s highest court, she was a noted feminist and civil rights lawyer. This Jewish, Brooklyn-born jurist has proven a sharp advocate for women’s rights in her dedication to reproductive health services and anti-gender discrimination laws. She is a four-time cancer survivor, should anyone still doubt her toughness.

Born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor was the US Supreme Court’s first Latinx justice. She says the TV show Perry Mason inspired her legal career, which started with top honors at Princeton University and then a law degree from Yale. She was appointed to her first judgeship by President George H. W. Bush (a Republican), then to the US Court of Appeals by President Clinton (a Democrat), and eventually as the third female US Supreme Court justice by President Obama (a Democrat). Sotomayor’s norm-busting practice of wearing high heels as a court justice is showcased on the cover of her bilingual, autobiographical 2018 children’s book, Turning Pages.

In her high school yearbook’s photo of the members of student government, Kagan is wearing a judge’s robe and gavel, standing next to a quote from a US Supreme Court justice. She’s shown a lifelong dedication to the law. Before being confirmed to the nation’s highest court in 2010, she was a law professor, eventually becoming the dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan was skilled at maintaining order among conflicting factions in the legal community. She was also the country’s first woman solicitor general. Kagan is very knowledgeable about technology and pop culture.

Deborah A. Batts is the first openly gay Black person to serve as a federal judge in the United States. Philadelphia-born Batts went to Radcliffe College and Harvard University, and then worked at a New York City corporate law firm before becoming Fordham University’s first Black faculty member. In 1994 President Clinton nominated her as a US district judge for New York’s Southern District. Among her big cases are the litigation between the Exxon Mobil Corporation and the government of Venezuela, and the injunction Batts issued to stop an unauthorized Catcher in the Rye sequel from going to press.

She came to the US in 1975 as a child, fleeing the fall of the South Vietnam government with her parents and five siblings. They lived in a refugee camp on a military base before moving to Los Angeles, California. After graduating from law school, she worked for California’s Central District US attorney and then became the country’s first federal judge to come from Vietnam. In 2011 she was nominated by President Obama to the US Court of Appeals, making her the first Asian American woman to serve as a federal appellate justice. While she is generally neutral on many political issues, she is a strong advocate for increasing racial diversity in the US legal community.