RBG and Women’s History Month
In honor of Women’s History Month coming to a close, I would like to honor and commemorate Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Ginsburg continuously fought for gender equality and became an influential leader for many women and girls around the world.
In 1954, Justice Ginsburg graduated from Cornell University. She met her partner Martin there, and they had one child before Ginsburg decided to go back to school to become a lawyer. She attended Harvard for two years, where she was one of nine women in a 500 person class. Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School to continue her study. At both universities, she experienced sexism from her peers and professors. As she rose to the top of her class, the discrimination persisted. She eventually became the first person to be an editor of both the Harvard Law Review and the Columbia Law Review. During her time at law school, she also received numerous accolades.
After graduating, Ginsburg had a difficult time trying to find a job. She faced more discrimination as she was a Jewish mother. In 1963, she was hired as the second female law professor at Columbia. Amid her time there, she had to fight for equal pay. She constantly fought for things that were not given to her. Ginsburg actively used her voice to fight for her rights as a woman.
Before being appointed to the Supreme Court, she argued six cases related to women’s’ rights and gender discrimination before the Supreme Court won five out of the six. Ginsburg battled sexism by using law to advocate against how women were treated unequally due to their sex. In 1993, she was appointed by President Clinton to be the first Jewish female justice on the Supreme Court. Ginsburg was a role model for all people as she challenged gender norms.
In terms of her work on abortion rights, although RBG did not necessarily promote Roe v. Wade, she was an advocate for women’s reproductive rights. She viewed restrictions on abortion as an obstruction of women’s privacy and as discriminatory against women’s right to equal citizenship with men. She stated, “[L]egal challenges to undue restrictions on abortion procedures do not seek to vindicate some generalized notion of privacy; rather, they center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.” Justice Ginsburg worked on several cases including Stenberg v. Carhart, Gonzales v. Carhart, and Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt in which she took positions that protected women’s health and safe access to abortions.
Women’s History Month is a celebration of influential women and to honor their contributions to American history. The past generations of women have paved our road for success, and without them, we would not be where we are today. It is a month dedicated to reflecting upon our achievements to inspire the young women in the next generations to come.
“From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung, and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
