If I were tasked to nominate a notable woman in history deserving of lifetime achievement, I would nominate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (although she’s already received such awards). Most know Ginsburg as the second woman to ever be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Ginsburg had an extensive career before this appointment, creating history in breaking countless legal and professional barriers for women. In the 1960s, Ginsburg was a volunteer lawyer at the New Jersey offices of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Here she saw a growing number of sex discrimination cases because of the just-passed 1964 Civil Rights Act’s Title VII. After these cases, she began teaching law, founded the first law journal in the U.S. to focus exclusively on women’s rights and later co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU. Serving as director of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, she argued six landmark cases on gender equality before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1980, President Carter appointed her to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where she served for 13 years centrist peacemaker of the court, defying ideological labels. Because of her extensive experience and revered reputation as an attorney, professor, and justice, she was nominated by President Clinton to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice, confirmed by the United States Senate in 1993, and has been serving on the nation’s highest court ever since. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a trailblazer for women’s rights throughout history and present day. Although as she says: “I don’t say women’s rights– I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizenship stature of men and women.” For these reasons, Justice Ginsburg is one of my greatest inspirations.
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