Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies

Ruth Bader Ginsburg – 1933-2020

Born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life was a tale of determination, perseverance, intelligence and dignity. She stood at just 5ft tall yet she was a giant of the law, rising to liberal superstar status and a champion of women’s rights. As famous for her trademark collars as her fierce defence of reproductive freedom, she fast became pro-choice royalty. The focus of 2 films, she became a pop-culture icon in later years, and famous for her direct comments:

“When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women judges on the US Supreme Court bench] and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

But whilst most people know of her life and impact from her time on the Supreme Court, her earlier years are equally as impressive, breaking boundaries and glass ceilings to reach the legal heights few could dream of at the time. 

She attended Cornell University where she met her future husband Martin Ginsburg, describing him as “the first boy I ever knew who cared that I had a brain”. Following graduation and the birth of their first child, she was accepted to study Law at Harvard University, one of only 9 women in a class of 500. She later graduated top of her class after transferring to Columbia Law School, yet despite this she was unable to find a job; “Not a law firm in the entire city of New York would employ me,” she said. “I struck out on three grounds: I was Jewish, a woman and a mother.”    

After becoming a Professor at Rutgers University School of Law in 1963, where she taught some of the first modules on women and the law, she became the first tenured female Professor at Columbia University School of Law in 1972.  That same year she co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, becoming their general counsel the following year. What followed was an impressive score card in gender discrimination cases, winning 5 out of 6 cases she argued before the Supreme Court.  1980 marked the beginning of her judicial career, after being appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the second most powerful federal court in America. It was a position she held until 1993 when she was nominated by President Clinton to the Supreme Court; being only the second woman confirmed to the bench in its history.  

Thus began a 27 year career of relentless and fierce protection of gender equality and reproductive freedom. Her dissents could be biting and her opinions forceful, but she never shied away from fighting for justice, particularly when it came to gender equality and gender discrimination.  She knew the devastation discrimination could cause; demoted at work because of her pregnancy; asked by the Harvard Dean to justify why a woman should take the place of a male student; and even refused a clerkship by Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter because she was a woman.  At the heart of her decisions and the fight for equality was her belief that gender discrimination existed in America, and this discrimination was unconstitutional.  Being able to access a legal abortion was a prerequisite to achieving gender equality, and her steadfast attitude to protecting reproductive freedom won her legions of fans. 

“It is essential to women’s equality with man that she be the decisionmaker, that her choice be controlling. If you impose restraints you are disadvantaging her because of her sex…. abortion prohibition by the State controls women and denies them full autonomy and full equality with men.”

Despite her ongoing health issues she continued to fight for the causes she knew were important to achieving equality: women’s preventive health, abortion and voting rights for example.  Her commitment to the US people and the law was unrivalled, with her even taking part in oral arguments from her hospital bed in 2020.  It is difficult to put into words just how important her legacy is, especially as we look towards a time of greater legal and political uncertainty in the US, and around the world. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life was a series of ‘firsts’, paving the way for other women to march forward out of the kitchen and into a male-dominated world.  There will be struggles and challenges as we gear up for a renewed battle for reproductive freedom and gender equality, but in these times of uncertainty I believe the ‘Notorious RBG’ can inspire us all with her words:

“[I would like to be remembered as] someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has.”