Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by Pratyusha Chamarthi

You may know Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an associate Supreme Court justice who fought for gender equality and women’s rights, but her story starts well before that. Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in a Jewish household. Her mother, Cecilia Bader, played a major role in her life, and taught her to love education. Unfortunately, her mother was fighting through cancer throughout her high school years, and ended up passing away the day before her graduation. In 1954, she graduated from Cornell University at the top of her class. Upon graduating, Ginsburg married Martin D. Ginsburg, who later got drafted to the military, right before she had her first child. Once he got discharged, they moved and Ginsburg attended Harvard Law. During her first year at Harvard Law, her husband got diagnosed with testicular cancer, so she struggled to keep up with her studies, but still maintained her spot at the top of the class. She faced one of her major challenges at Harvard, as she went to a “male-dominated school where she was one of nine females in a 500-person class.” Ginsburg was discriminated against and was often accused of “taking a man’s spot.” However, she pushed through and her hard work eventually paid off, as she became the first member of the Harvard Law Review.

Once her husband recovered, they moved to New York, where Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law and completed her last year. Upon graduating, Ginsburg had difficulties finding a job due to the gender-based discrimination in the work force; however, she eventually landed her first job as a clerk under Judge Edmund L. Palmieri with the help of her Columbia professor. She then “taught at Rutgers Law School (1963-72), and at Columbia (1972-80), where she became the school’s first female tenured professor.” She also directed the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1970’s. She successfully fought against gender discrimination affecting both males and females and argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1993, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by President Bill Clinton, where she filled the seat vacated by Justice Byron White. Ginsburg became the court’s second female justice and the first Jewish female justice. Her advocating style was “slow but steady, and calculated,” which helped attack “specific areas of discrimination and violations of women’s rights one at a time.” She is especially known for her “scathing dissent on the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. case (concerning wage discrimination), as well as her support of the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which legalized same-sex marriage across the United States.”

After successfully serving on the Supreme Court for twenty-seven years, she died on September 18, 2020, at the age of eighty-seven, due to complications from metastatic pancreas cancer. Currently, many people are worried that this jeopardizes her legacy and what she has done for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights because “the Supreme Court's conservative majority will roll back equality protections,” which will undo everything Ginsburg had worked for.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg serves as a great example for girls and future leaders, as she teaches us the importance of being resilient. She had many setbacks throughout her life, but instead of giving up, she used her anger and frustration to create change for women and the LQBTQ+ community. She introduced the idea of feminism to courts full of men and made them confront the fact that women did not receive the same rights as men, helping change perspectives on gender equality. Ultimately, Ruth’s work transformed the position of American women in society.

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Resources:

Cohen, Li. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Death Leaves Many Women Feeling Scared - but Prepared to Continue Her Legacy.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Sept. 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/ruth-bader-ginsburgs-death-leaves-many-women-feeling-scared-but-prepared-to-continue-her-legacy/.

History.com Editors. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/ruth-bader-ginsburg.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Sept. 2020, www.biography.com/law-figure/ruth-bader-ginsburg.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” The MY HERO Project, myhero.com/ruth-bader-ginsberg.

"Ruth Bader Ginsburg." Oyez, www.oyez.org/justices/ruth_bader_ginsburg. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.