You might have never heard of her before her death, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a very important figure of the Supreme Court of Justice in the U.S.A. who fought for women's rights. By changing the USA laws, she influenced changes in international laws too.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born Joan Ruth Bader, was born on March 15 1933 in New York and died earlier this year, on the 18th of September 2020.
She was the second women to join the Supreme Court of Justice as well as the first Jewish female judge.
Ruth first attended the Cornell University where she met her husband at the age of 17.
In 1954 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government. She was the highest-ranking female in her graduating class.
In 1956, she was admitted to the Harvard University Law school, being part of the 9 women amongst 500 men. When her husband took a job in New York, she followed him and transferred studies to Columbia University Law school. Thus she become the first women to have been studying in two major law establishments.
During the beginning of her career, Ruth had trouble with finding employment due to her gender and the fact that she was a mother, despite the warm recommendations from her teachers to possible Judges. After a time, she finally got the job as a clerkship for Judge Palmieri where she held the position for two years.
In 1972, Ginsburg co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the next year, she became the Project's General Counsel. The Project participated in defending more than 300 gender discrimination cases by 1974.
Instead of asking the Court to end gender discrimination at once, she preferred to carefully aim specific discriminatory cases and building on each successive victory the proof that gender discrimination was both harmful to men and women. This strategic and gradual approach led to ending gender discrimination in many areas of the law.
In 1980, she was chosen by President Carter to sit on the DC circuit Appeals Court, which led her to being appointed by President Bill Clinton as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on June 22, 1993.
During the time of her career, she was seen as a moderate and consensus judge by the others. But she was actually a progressive judge who did not try to adapt the constitution to her vision, but rather build up and improve it little by little.
Due to her personal experiences as a women, she was a judge that truly believed in gender equality and personal liberties in child bearing stating that "the government has no business making that choice for a woman".
Ginsburg death gathered thousands of people in front of the Supreme Court building to lay flowers, light candles, and leave messages.
Some days before her death Ruth Bader stated "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."
Donald Trump, on his side, chose Amy Conney Barrett to replace Ginsburg, who has different ideas and approaches as a Republican party nominee, and holds more of anti-abortion and pro-guns views.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a remarkable women that led to the evolution of the U.S.A society through law improvements and who actively participated to ending the genders inequalities in her country.
Some other inspiring lawyers that continue with Ruth Bader Ginsburg fight for women's rights around the world are Leona Theron (South Africa) who is known for challenging laws that discriminate against women and girls; Njoki Susanna Ndung'u (Kenya) who created what is known as the 'Njoki law' which introduces mandatory minimum sentences for offences such as child rape, trafficking for sexual exploitation and the deliberate transmission of sexually transmitted diseases; or Indira Jaising (India) who drafted laws against sexual harassment in the workplace, against domestic violence, as well as fighting for equal inheritance for women and for their equal rights in child custody cases.
If you are interested in learning more about the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in 2018 two movies were made about her: one is a life fact based fiction "On the Basis of Sex" and a documentary about her work called, "RBG".
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