Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) was undoubtedly one of the most important female lawyers in this country and paved the way for equal rights among genders. She served as a Supreme Court justice from 1993 until her recent death in 2020.
She changed the way the world is for American women and led the way for more female lawyers. I recently watched her documentary, RBG, which gave incredible insight into everything that this woman has done. Even from the time she was a teenager, she preferred to discuss deeper topics. She gained entry into Cornell and then Harvard Law. Her husband, Martin, even set his own job to the side to make hers a priority, which was very uncommon in the 70s. They thankfully had a partnership and he believed that women’s work was equally important to men’s. They had a very progressive marriage for that time. Martin had a job at a law firm in New York and when Ruth got a job on the Supreme Court, Martin was the one who moved. She co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union and co-founded the first law journal on women’s rights. RBG went on to successfully argue five landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Her unwavering tenacity, intelligence, humor, spirited attitude, and sheer will have given her the well-deserved pop icon status she will continue to have long after her death. She is now affectionately referred to as the notorious RBG for good reason. The documentary covered her whole life and gave an amazing perspective of what it was like for a woman in her position to deal with her own experiences of gender discrimination. I was surprised to learn that she had a child in college (Cornell and Harvard law) and still managed to graduate top of her class at Cornell. At that time, she was also caring for her husband who had fallen ill. She stayed up at night to make sure he still studied and to finish her homework. Even as she grew older, she continued to stay up late into the night to complete her work and make sure that it was the best that she could do. She was a remarkable force to be reckoned with and I now understand her level of commitment and dedication. I’m grateful for the chance to watch this documentary and finally see firsthand what this woman was all about. She fought tirelessly for gender equality and so many things that we take for granted today. She once stated that the ideal number of women on the Supreme Court would be 9. Every woman in America owes a debt of gratitude to RBG for their legal status. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t be where we are today.