The biography about Ruth Baden Ginsburg gives an overview of her life, circumstances, events and people that helped shape her into and important female figure in the history of justice of the United States.
The section about her early life reveals that Ruth was born to immigrant parents, her father Nathan came from Ukraine and couldn’t speak English and her mother, even though born in New York, only moved to America four months prior to Joan Ruth’s birth. Her mother Celia is one of the most important figures that shaped Ruth into an education-loving and persistent in learning individual. She taught her about the importance of education, but also of the importance of compassion and sacrifice.
At Cornell University Ruth met her future husband Martin Ginsburg. After they married, and he served in army, Ruth decides to apply to Harvard Law School together with her husband. This is a turning point in her life and career because of the discrimination she faces there as a woman taking a man’s place, shaping her dedication to fight gender inequality and discrimination later in her life. After getting her degree as one of the top students Ruth finds it difficult to actually get a decent position. Nevertheless, good impressions and relationships with her professors helped her in her path.
Soon in her marriage Ruth gives birth to a daughter called Jane and manages to balance her education and family life. After getting a job, she hides her second pregnancy out of fear of losing it. She gives birth to a son called James. Her husband is a source of compassionate support, being ahead of his time by taking on a role of a partner not afraid to support his wife in anything rather than a commanding figure of the household. Both of their children attend law school, but the son takes on a more artistic path while the daughter follows in her mother’s footsteps.
After graduating from Columbia Law School in 1959 Ruth was faced with the reality of her time, her religion and her existence as a woman proved to be obstacles in her career path. With the help of one of her professors she gains a position as a clerk for the US District Court. Later on she will get a new position as a professor at Rutgers School of Law. In the 70s Ruth actively works with the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, to fight for gender equality and changing the problematic laws. After the long battle against the laws that promote gender inequality Ruth catches the attention of president Jimmy Carter, and he appoints her to the US Court of Appeals for the District in Columbia in 1980.
Ginsburg’s reputation doesn’t go unnoticed, and in 1993 she gets nominated to the US Supreme Court by president Bill Clinton. Despite some disagreements from the male perspective, she gets appointed because her work and success cannot be denied. Her success and her outspokenness when it comes to the important issues of discrimination will lead to her becoming a pop culture icon, being often referred to with solely her initials RBG, or even The Notorious RBG, inspired by the famous rapper Notorious B.I.G., sealing her reputation as a legend.
Towards the end of her career Ruth faced yet another form of discrimination, which is ageism. Nevertheless, as the biography predicted, her dedication to her work didn’t end in retirement, but a lost battle against cancer in September 2020.
