4/2: RBG Movie

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She is the second female justice of four to be confirmed to the court.
• Neither of her parents went to college so she was a first generation, but they taught her that education was very important
• Growing up, she liked to do the things boys liked to do such as climb on garage roofs
• Her mother died when she was 17. She always said to do two things always:
  • Be a lady
  • be independent
• “I became a lawyer in the days that women were not wanted in most men in the law profession”
• She went to cornell
• “My first semester at cornell, I never did a repeat date.”
• “He was the first boy I ever knew that cared that I had a brain” — talking about marty
• “Meeting marty was by far the most fortunate things to ever happen to me”
• Women did not come into the Harvard law school until the 50’s.. And even then it was only about 2%
  • Ruth said she felt uncomfortable to say anything in class
• She was once told she couldn’t enter a room at Harvard because she was female
• “I came to harvard as the mother of a 14 month old child”
  • “Playing with my daughter gave me a rest from the kind of work I was doing in law school and I think it made me more sane.”
• During law school (marty’s third year) marty had ovarian cancer
• Her son and daughter said he remembered her working till 3, 4 or 5 in the morning, show up to court at 9 and go on with her day. She would sleep all weekend to make up for it.
• Marty graduated from Harvard and this is when Ruth was in her second year of law school
• Ruth graduated from law school at Columbia in 1959
  • Had to transfer to be with Marty
  • No firm in NYC would hire her because she was a woman
• “Being a woman was an impediment” – Ruth
• There were thousands of state and federal laws that discriminated against gender
• Employers in most states were able to legally fire a woman for being pregnant
• Marching and protesting wasn’t her thing, she wanted to put her knowledge and law skills to work
• She began working with women’s rights movements
• First Case was with a girl who was in the air force
  • She was being treated unfairly
  • Lost in the district court, so went to the supreme court
  • The justices weren’t expecting to have to deal with her power and stature.
  • They won this case
• She loves going to oprah
• Gender based discrimination hurts everyone – ruth says
• She used each case to move things forward in women’s rights, it was like “knitting a sweater”
• She says she saw herself as a Kindergarten teacher because those judges did not think gender discrimination was a thing
  • She told them to think of women as all their daughters and granddaughters
• She won ⅚ cases
• He moved to Washington to be with Ruth, which was pretty much unheard of during this time
• Marty helped temper Ruth’s seriousness – says their son
• He allowed ruth to be who she was
• Ruth was a terrible cook
• Marty helped Ruth and respected her so much. He wanted her to be seriously considered for court.
• Bill Clinton nominated Ruth to be a Justice in the Supreme Court
• She was confirmed 96-3

She wanted to be able to convince her fellow justices to move her way even if it meant compromising a little.

You start with an assumption that you have got to treat both genders equally.

Lilly Ledbetter

• Obama signed this bill
• The Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act

Marty became weaker and weaker

• She somehow knew how to keep herself together in public
• 1932-2010 (marty)

She got cancer

• It made her enjoy the things of everyday life more
• When she came out of chemotherapy she began working out

She has become more public and more vocal

Ruth made rude comments about Trump

• She issued an apology

Many wanted her to step down so Obama could elect a different judge. She was asked if she regretted not stepping down and she said that she will do the job until she can’t do it to her best effort anymore.

She changed the way the world is for american women.