Books & Bottles

Ruth Bader Ginsberg was one of the first women to attend Harvard Law School and did so with a young toddler and a husband who was diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatments (Supreme Court Historical Society). In a time when we are all in a position where being socially responsible means grinning and bearing it as we juggle more than we were meant to, Ruth Bader Ginsberg was our champion.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg paved the way for working moms to be able to work outside of the home in a career of her choosing without the fear of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. Her career as an educator, attorney, lawmaker, and Supreme Court Justice aimed to dismantle any and all sex-based discrimination that prevented women and men from being treated equally and for that, we owe her an unpayable debt of gratitude.  Here are some ways that the Notorious RBG helped shape our everyday life today:

• In the seventies, Ginsberg litigated a series of cases that challenged the ways that government programs and employers treated men differently than women. Social Security disability benefits were rewarded to women who were widowed, but not men.
• In Struck V. Secretary of Defense, if a woman in the Air Force were to become pregnant, she was effectively kicked out of the military branch. However, if a man’s wife were to become pregnant, he was not.
• Ginsberg dissented a Supreme Court ruling that upheld a reversal of a federal court decision rewarding a female a sizable amount in back pay and damages due to sex-based pay discrimination. She stated, “The court does not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination,” and asked Congress to step in and remedy the situation as the Supreme Court had not.
• She championed women’s right to autonomy and their ability to make informed decisions regarding their health and family planning and the necessity of employer-sponsored healthcare to cover contraceptives, citing the inaccessibility due to cost for minimum wage workers.
• She fought for employees to have the right and ability to take time off of work to care for family members when dealing with illness, death, or injury.
• She gently taught lawmakers in the United States that while the traditional roles of men and women were important, to define them based on sex ignored the fact that the country was evolving, as was the roles that men and women found they had to play.
• She served as a powerful role model to all, but especially women, by taking on cases that challenged gender roles, gently challenging those that valued tradition over equality and autonomy, and being vocal about her views and opinions even when she was in the minority.

Ruth and Martin Ginsberg play with daughter in 1958, roughly a year before she would graduate from Columbia Law School (Chicago Tribune).

By no means is this an exhaustive list of all the ways RBG fought for gender equality. She graduated from Columbia Law School in 1959 and began teaching as a professor at Rutgers Law School in 1963 after a seemingly impossible job search. She co-founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project in 1972 so that she could tackle the laws that discriminated against American citizens on the basis of sex. She was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980. In 1993 she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. Leading up to these career highlights, she passionately fought for equality, using each position she held to further the cause and advance women of the United States to be equal to men (Supreme Court Historical Society).

“I attributed my success in law school largely to Jane. I felt each part of my life gave me respite from the other,” said Ginsberg in an article with the Atlantic where she talks about attending law school with her then 14-month-old daughter. Working moms today are having to juggle multiple roles, with the support of their partners when possible. Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s experience in law school as well as her career is a bold reminder of what is important, what our motivation is, how far we have come, and how far we need to go.

Harvard Law School began admitting women in 1950. Just six years later, Ruth Bader Ginsberg attended (Supreme Court Historical Society). She was passed a baton that she passed on to all working and studying women and mothers, as well as their partners. This baton represents hope, equality, and empathy and serves as a reminder that hard work, persistence, and resilience can accomplish great things.

References:

Ehrlich, J. (2020, September 19). Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s most notable Supreme Court decisions and dissents. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/politics/rbg-supreme-court-decisions-dissents/index.html

Johnson, S. (2020, February 10). ‘Notorious RBG’ now a museum exhibit in Skokie, too. Retrieved from https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/museums/ct-ent-notorious-rbg-exhibit-illinois-holocaust-museum-ttd-0607-20200210-ybydo6hrqvd57fd7x5ykbrs44i-story.html