Ruth Bader Ginsberg: Ladies, look up to the stars!

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception.
Ruth. Bader. Ginsberg. These three powerful words represent what America stands for - Liberty, Equality and Opportunity.

The demure firebrand and the feminist icon recently died in Washington but her legacy lives on.

Ginsberg spent a lifetime flourishing in the face of adversity before being appointed a Supreme Court justice, where she successfully fought against gender discrimination and unified the liberal block of the court. As serious as she was about these subjects, she also had a way of highlighting critical issues with humour, embracing her nickname "Notorious RBG".

Born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, her mother was a great influencer in her life, although she herself worked in a garment factory. It was her mother who instilled a love of education in Ginsburg. Ginsburg's success in academia continued throughout her years at Cornell University, where she graduated at the top of her class in 1954. That same year, Ruth Bader became Ruth Bader Ginsburg after marrying her husband Martin. After graduation, she put her education on hold to start a family. She had her first child in 1955, shortly after her husband was drafted for two years of military service. Upon her husband's return from his service, Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law.

Courage at the worst of times
Ginsburg's personal struggles neither decreased in intensity nor deterred her in any way from reaching and exceeding her academic goals, even when her husband was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1956 during her first year of law school. Ginsburg took on the challenge of keeping her sick husband up-to-date with his studies while maintaining her own position at the top of the class. At Harvard, Ginsburg tackled the challenges of motherhood and of a male-dominated school where she was one of nine females in a 500-person class. She faced gender-based discrimination from even the highest authorities there. She went on to serve as the first female member of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from Harvard, Ginsberg moved to New York City to accept a position at a law firm there. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had one more year of law school left, so she transferred to Columbia Law School and served on their law review as well. She graduated first in her class at Columbia Law in 1959.

Even her exceptional academic record was not enough to shield her from the gender-based discrimination women faced in the workplace in the 1960s. Despite finishing at the top of her class, Ginsburg did not receive a single job offer after graduation until a favourite Columbia professor explicitly refused to recommend any other graduates until US District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri hired Ginsburg as a clerk. Ginsburg clerked under Judge Palmieri for two years. In 1963, she accepted a job as a professor at Rutgers University Law School, a position she held until accepting an offer to teach at Columbia in 1972.

Ginsburg experienced her share of gender discrimination, even going so far as to hide her pregnancy from her Rutgers colleagues. Ginsburg accepted Jimmy Carter's appointment to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980. She served on the court for 13 years until 1993, when Bill Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court of the United States.

'Rebel' Ruth

In 1972 at Columbia, Ginsburg co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). That same year, Ginsburg became the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law School. She was soon the ACLU's general counsel, launching a series of gender-discrimination cases. Six of these brought her before the Supreme Court, five of which she won.

Ginsburg began her career as a justice where she left off as an advocate, fighting for women's rights. In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Virginia, holding that qualified women could not be denied admission to Virginia Military Institute. Her style in advocating from the bench matches her style from her time at the ACLU - slow but steady, and calculated. Instead of creating sweeping limitations on gender discrimination, she attacked specific areas of discrimination and violations of women's rights one at a time, so as to send a message to the legislatures on what they can and cannot do. This method allows for social change to remain in Congress' power while also receiving guidance from the court.

She was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton after a lengthy search process. Ginsburg was the second woman ever confirmed to that bench, following Sandra Day O'Connor, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Among Ginsburg's most significant, early cases was United States vs Virginia, which struck down the men-only admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute.

Until her death on September 18, 2020, Ginsburg worked with a personal trainer in the Supreme Court's exercise room, and for many years could lift more than both justices Breyer and Kagan. Until the 2018 term, Ginsburg had not missed a day of oral arguments, even when she was undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer post-surgery for colon cancer, or the day after her husband passed away in 2010.

Justice Ginsburg proved time and again that she was a force to be reckoned with, and those who doubted her capacity to effectively complete her judicial duties needed only to look at her record in arguments, where she was, until her death, among the most avid questioners on the bench.

SHE IS AN INSPIRATION

.    SHE became only the second woman ever to serve as a justice on the nation's highest court.
.    SHE struggled against blatant sexism throughout her career as she climbed to the pinnacle of her profession.
.    A lifelong advocate of gender equality, she was fond of joking that there would be enough women on the nine-seat Supreme Court "when there are nine".
.    Despite maintaining a modest public profile, like most top judges, SHE inadvertently became not just a celebrity, but a pop-culture heroine.
.    The petite 5-ft-something will be remembered as rights giant.
.    SHE had five major run-ins with cancer herself.
.    SHE only missed oral arguments twice because of illness.
.    The 'Notorious RBG' was the subject of a documentary, an award-winning biopic and countless bestselling novels. She inspired Saturday Night Live skits and had her likeness plastered on mugs and T-shirts.