List of female state supreme court justices


Below is a list of the names of the first woman to sit on the highest court of their respective states in the United States.
The first state with a female justice was Ohio; Florence Ellinwood Allen was named to the bench in 1923.
StateJusticeYear
AlabamaJanie Shores1974
AlaskaDana Fabe1996
ArizonaLorna E. Lockwood1961
ArkansasElsijane Trimble Roy1976
CaliforniaRose Bird1977
ColoradoJean Dubofsky1979
ConnecticutEllen Ash Peters1978
DelawareCarolyn Berger1994
District of ColumbiaCatherine B. Kelly1967
FloridaRosemary Barkett1985
GeorgiaLeah Ward Sears1992
HawaiiRhoda V. Lewis1959
IdahoLinda Copple Trout1992
IllinoisMary Ann G. McMorrow1992
IndianaMyra Consetta Selby1995
IowaLinda Kinnedy Neuman1986
KansasKay McFarland1977
KentuckySara W. Combs1993
LouisianaCatherine D. Kimball1992
MaineCaroline Duby Glassman1983
MarylandRita C. Davidson1979
MassachusettsRuth Abrams1978
MichiganMary Coleman1973
MinnesotaRosalie E. Wahl1977
MississippiLenore L. Prather1982
MissouriAnn K. Covington1988
MontanaDiane Barz1989
NebraskaLindsey Miller-Lerman1998
NevadaMiriam Shearing1992
New HampshireLinda S. Dalianis2000
New JerseyMarie L. Garibaldi1982
New MexicoMary Coon Walters1984
New YorkJudith Kaye1983
North CarolinaSusie Sharp1962
North DakotaBeryl J. Levine1985
OhioFlorence Ellinwood Allen1923
OklahomaAlma Bell Wilson1982
OregonBetty Roberts1982
PennsylvaniaAnne X. Alpern1961
Rhode IslandFlorence K. Murray1979
South CarolinaJean H. Toal1988
South DakotaJudith Meierhenry2002
TennesseeMartha Craig Daughtrey1990
TexasRuby Kless Sondock1982
UtahChristine M. Durham1982
VermontDenise R. Johnson1990
VirginiaElizabeth B. Lacy1988
WashingtonCarolyn R. Dimmick1981
West VirginiaMargaret Workman1988
WisconsinShirley Abrahamson1976
WyomingMarylin Stebner Kite2000
United States Supreme CourtSandra Day O'Connor1981

Female chief justices

Instances of a female-majority court

Only a few times over the course of history has the percentage of women on the highest court in any state been greater than the percentage of men. Currently, the United States Supreme Court has the highest percentage of women Justices it has ever had, yet there has still never been a majority. In New Mexico, as of November 12, 2015, with the appointment of Justice Judith Nakamura, the New Mexican Supreme Court has a female minority-majority, a first in New Mexico and possibly a first in the United States.
StateYear
All-Woman Supreme Court 1925
California2011–2017
District of Columbia2006–2013, 2017–present
Michigan1997, 2009
Minnesota1991, 2016–present
Nevada2019–present
New Jersey2011
New Mexico2015–present
New York2003–2008, 2013–2017
North Carolina2011
Ohio2002, 2005, 2011, 2018–present
Oregon2017–present
Tennessee2009–present
Vermont2017–present
Washington2013–present
Wisconsin2003–2004, 2007–present
West Virginia2017–present
Wyoming2018–present