Special Issue
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman in history to hold this position, was an iconic woman who fought for gender equality rights. He was able to break barriers throughout his life and is considered a pop icon in the United States. After her death, she continues to break barriers by being the first Jewish woman and person to be honored in the burning chapel of the United States Capitol.
By Carmen Padilla , September 25, 2020
Ruth was born into a poor home and was always encouraged by her mother who sadly died a few days after seeing her daughter graduate; A phrase that Ruth remembered her mother saying was "Be a lady (always keep your composure) and be independent (no matter which prince charming appears, you must fend for yourself)". She was an outstanding student at Harvard Law School (HLS) and editor of the Harvard Law Review. Due to the regulations of the time, in addition to discrimination for being one of the 9 women out of 500 students, she was unable to graduate from HLS and had to continue her studies at Columbia University in New York where her husband had found a job.
Although she graduated top of her class, more than ten law firms did not hire her because they did not hire women; eventually he went to work in a judge's office. A few years later, she entered academia and became Columbia's first full-time legal scholar. She became the first woman to be featured in the prestigious Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review publications.
She returned to HLS classrooms multiple times to support women in pursuing their dreams, in 2011 HLS awarded her an honorary degree and in 2015 she received the Radcliffe Medal for her extraordinary legal career and transformative impact on society.
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About his home, he married the lawyer Marty Ginsburg who was a special man for the time. They met very young at Cornell University and went to Harvard together. Once Ruth's career took off he quit his job and followed his wife as naturally as she had followed him to New York when he found a job with a law firm.
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Once Ruth's work intensified, Marty took care of the home and her children. Years before, he suffered from cancer and so that he would not lose the year at Harvard, Ruth typed the notes of her classmates at night and during the day she took care of her first child, her studies and took care of the home.
Already as a judge appointed in 1993 by President Clinton, one of the remembered cases was that of Stephen Wiesenfeld, a young widower who was left in charge of a baby. When she asked for help from Social Security, they were denied it because they were intended exclusively for women. Ruth stepped in, took him to the Supreme Court, and won by creating a legal turning point. Since then it has become a benchmark in the US legal system. He founded NGOs, created courses on gender, among many other things. He fell ill with cancer twice and did not miss almost a day from his court work. He died on September 18, 2020 at the age of 87.
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Fun facts: opera lover (appeared several times on stage). There is a book called Sisters in Law, by Linda Hirshman, which describes how Ruth and another judge Sandra Day O'Connor created an egalitarian legal framework even though their lives and beliefs seemed totally opposite but similar due to their gender.
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Sources:
https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/02/23/actualidad/1550937519_698822.html
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/radcliffe-magazine/radcliffe-medalist-ruth-bader-ginsburg
https://mujeresbacanas.com/ruth-bader-ginsburg-1933/
Harvard Law School