The Woman Behind the Curtain of Change
by: Ruth Pickens
America is now a much better place than it was just one hundred years ago for both minorities and women. Hundreds of individual people contributed to this change but one major name stands out. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has devoted her whole life to political transformation. It was not any one event that brought us where we are today, but her decades of consistent perseverance that has shaped society.
She was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, and from the very start she was different. Not only is she extremely bright and capable, but she is also very determined. Once she has her mind set on something, nothing and no one can get in her way. In an interview with CBS news, Ruth said, “She [my mother] said two things, be a lady and be independent. Be a lady meant don’t give way to emotions that zap your energy, like anger, take a deep breath and speak calmly”(Organization). It has been clear that Ruth took this advice to heart as she has faced much discrimination and trial throughout her life. Sadly, her mother passed from cancer just days before Ruth graduated high school, first of her class. She went on to graduate from Cornell as a law student, where she met her husband, and fellow law student Martin. She soon had a daughter, whom for the first two years Ruth raised without aid of the father, due to his draft into the military. After his time away, the couple enrolled at Harvard University together. Ruth was one of nine females in her class of 500. There she faced much discrimination and discouragement from not only her peers but also her dean. He believed she, and the other women, were taking valuable spaces from qualified men. But as her mother taught her, Ruth stayed calm and focused. She ignored the negativity around her, focused on her husband who encouraged her daily, and worked unquestionably hard to ace her school work and raise her daughter. After two years at Harvard she transferred to Columbia University where she again, graduated first of her class. Time after time Ruth proved to the world that she was capable and strong. She showed those around her that women could be more than society believed. Yet, after graduating Columbia with such remarkable grades, she still struggled to find a job. “I had three strikes against me. One I was Jewish, two I was a woman, but the killer,” Ruth said, “was that I was the mother of a four year old child”(Organization). Most employers believed it unlikely that she was capable of juggling motherhood while also being a lawyer.
Eventually, with the help of a male friend, she was able to get a job as a legal clerk. She then became a college professor and Columbia’s first female to have tenure, but she still wasn’t satisfied. She had personally experienced the opportunity gap between genders in America and wanted to change that. Not only for herself but for every women who’s capability and accomplishments were being overlooked simply because of their gender. By the 1970s she was the co-founder and director of the Women’s Rights Project for the ACLU. The ACLU has fought and continues to fight the many court battles that are helping women recieve equal employment opportunity and pay.
After working with the ACLU, Ruth was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She worked there for 13 years until she was appointed to be an Associate Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court by Bill Clinton. There she was involved in many monumental cases for America. In one case, United States v. Virginia, she made history by being part of the ruling that opened the last all men university’s doors to women. The military college claimed that women were not biologically suited for the training programs. They also claimed that the alternative women’s program at Mary Baldwin College was just as beneficial, using the “separate-but-equal” policy. However, it was clear that the programs were not equal in training or post graduation benefits. “Generalizations about ‘the way women are,’ estimates about what is appropriate for most women,” Ruth wrote, “no longer justify denying opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.”
Even though most of Ruth’s first hand experienced with inequality was gender related, she stands in court against all inequalities. In the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case she was a strong promoter of the legalization of same-sex marriage. Some argued that a same sex couple could not procreate and therefore should have no use for marriage. To this Ruth asked if a 70 year old heterosexual couple should be stopped from marriage, when they could not procreate either. Without her contribution and her candidness, LGBTQ may not have the same rights they have today.
She’s stayed on the Supreme Court to this day, refusing to retire or even take a day off as she went through chemotherapy. Now, at the age of 85, she continues to be a strong advocate for equal rights across all groups of people. She says, “I will do this job as long as I feel I can do it full steam at my age you have to take it year by year”, and even though she may be nearing the end of her career, she is by no means “winding down”(Organization). Ruth is charging ahead with the same vigilance and spirit that she has had since the beginning, and everything she has done so far is more than anyone may have expected from a Brooklyn girl.
“About the ACLU Women’s Rights Project.” American Civil Liberties Union, Aclu, www.aclu.org/other/about-aclu-womens-rights-project.
Editors, History.com. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/ruth-bader-ginsburg.
Organization. “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Speaks.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 9 Oct. 2016, www.cbsnews.com/video/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-speaks/.
“United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996).” Justia Law, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/518/515/#annotation.
Webster, Emma Sarran. “7 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Supreme Court Rulings You NEED to Know About.” Teen Vogue, TeenVogue.com, 4 May 2018, www.teenvogue.com/story/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-court-rulings-to-know-about.
