Strands of Pearls

"We should not be held back from pursuing our full talents, from contributing what we could contribute to society, because we fit into a certain mold––because we belong to a group that historically has been the object of discrimination."

Had she never been nominated to the highest court Ruth Bader Ginsburg would certainly be remembered as a single indomitable force who dedicated her life to championing women's fight for equality, and society's road toward equal justice. At every point in her life she was pushed on closed doors in her quiet, often shy, demeanor which left many having never seen her coming! She left an unparalleled legacy of justice and equality with groundbreaking cases that changed the legal landscape and this country. She is responsible for changing women's legal rights and access, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg did so much more, for every woman, for every little girl, for everyone who has ever been told-"sorry, this isn't your door" she blazed a trail in her demure yet tough as nails way- “Women belong,” she said, “ in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” and she dedicated her work and her life to ensuring just that.

“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.”

Her own biography is ground breaking. She entered Cornell on full scholarship at the age of 17 after the tragic loss of her Mom. It was at Cornell that she would meet her beloved Marty "What made Marty so overwhelmingly attractive to me was that he cared that I had a brain," she said. After college she could not find a job except as typist and when she entered Harvard Law, one of only 9 women in her class of 500, the dean of Harvard Law would bring these 9 women together and ask them outright why they thought it was OK to be taking the place that should be held by a man. She would follow Marty to Columbia Law graduating top of her class but finding she could not get a job. The doors to law firms were closed to a woman, no matter how brilliant or how many recommendations she came with. In 1963 she finally landed a job teaching at Rutgers Law and hiding her second pregnancy by wearing oversized clothes so no one would know she was pregnant and could hold her job. She would begin her fight for equal justice at Rutgers and go on to try cases of discrimination at the supreme court. She would become the first female tenured professor at Columbia Law and became the voice and the designer of the battle for women's legal rights with one goal-to win!

"The words of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause — 'nor shall any state deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.' Well that word, 'any person,' covers women as well as men. And the Supreme Court woke up to that reality in 1971," Ginsburg said.

“Fight for the things that you care about,but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

In 1980 President Jimmy Carter nominated her to the D.C. District court of appeals and in 1993 President Clinton nominated her to the supreme court-the second woman to be be nominated She was not his first choice but upon meeting with her he was sold falling for her "hook, link and sinker" and she was confirmed by the senate on a 96-3 vote.

“I pray that I may be all that [my mother] would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought in every corner of her life with a steely determination. She said that starting out she had three strikes against her-she was Jewish, a Woman , and a Mother-all of which meant doors that swung open for men with far less ability were not even available to be seen for her. Cancer would be an incessant presence throughout, from her Mother, to her cherished Marty, to her own numerous private battles... but nothing, not even cancer, stopped her-she worked and battled through pain and loss with a laced glove iron hand and will. She found great joy in her Notorious RBG fame and how amazing that so many little girls would have such an icon to emulate. In her first ever case as a Supreme Court justice she showed she was not there to just fill a chair but would continue her fight for equality.

"Sex, like race, is a visible, immutable characteristic bearing no necessary relationship to ability.

Sex, like race, has been made the basis for unjustified or at least unproved assumptions, concerning an individual’s potential to perform or to contribute to society…

These distinctions have a common effect: They help keep woman in her place, a place inferior to that occupied by men in our society."

In conclusion Justice Ginsburg quoted Sara Grimke:

"I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks."

She showed that it simply didn't matter that you were born a woman-gender was irrelevant and she worked to ensure that justice for everyone would be secure.

"Yet, dare we be at ease? We are part of a world whose unity has been almost completely shattered. No one can feel free from danger and destruction until the many torn threads of civilization are bound together again. We cannot feel safer until every nation, regardless of weapons or power, will meet together in good faith, the people worthy of mutual association."

"I do think that I was born under a very bright star...When you think about — the world has changed really in what women are doing. I went to law school when women were less than 3% of lawyers in the country; today, they are 50%. I never had a woman teacher in college or in law school. The changes have been enormous. And they've just — they've gone much too far [to be] going back."

She left us at the worst time possible, just weeks before the election with time to fill her seat in a lame duck republican session. Her death on the Jewish New Year, on the Sabbath as well. means she is considered a Tzaddik, a person of great righteousness. NPR reporter Nina Totenberg, a dear friend of Justice Ginsburg, wrote on Twitter: "A Jewish teaching says those who die just before the Jewish new year are the ones God has held back until the last moment because they were needed most and were the most righteous." Yet, it is as if she was denied a New Year, and all of us another year of her incomparable gifts and presence. In the Jewish tradition when someone dies you say "May their memory be a blessing"...for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg her life was that for us all and her loss is palpable. She simply changed how society is for American women, full stop. She was a revolutionary at every step of her life who created a revolution, so may her memory be just that, a revolution that fulfills her last wish and in her death may she blaze one last irrevocable trail again for us all. Thank You Justice Ginsburg.