With Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s recent death, it’s important to look back on this incredible woman’s life and fight for justice to see how we can incorporate her strength and influence into our own lives.
If You Work Hard, You Can Accomplish Your Dreams
“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
RBG was the second female to join the supreme court and the first Jewish female justice, at a time when women didn’t have fundamental human rights. While RBG was at Harvard, there were only eight other women in her class of over 500 people. She was a new mother struggling to balance her roles. Even though many people, even the law school dean, told Ginsburg to give up, she pushed on to win five out of six gender discrimination supreme court cases.
Accept Differences
“it helps sometimes to be a little deaf (in marriage and in) every workplace, including the good job I have now.”
RBG’s close friend Antonin Scalia had a completely different political ideology than her. News organizations often questioned how a moral person like RBG could be friends with a republican like Scalia. In a time with the great partisan divide in history, it’s important to focus on the similarities that we share. As RBG said, “you can disagree without being disagreeable.”
Choose Your Words Carefully
“How to be Like RBG: Work for what you believe in, but pick your battles, and don’t burn your bridges.”
Ginsburg believed it’s important to choose your words carefully, especially when dealing with colleagues. There were many times RBG disagreed with her fellow justices, but she kept her cool and picked her battles carefully. It’s important to fight for what you believe in, but life is a game of chess- so take a hint from RBG, and play strategically.
It’s OK That Change Takes Time
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
Imagine how infuriating it must be to have pushed for change your whole life and finally begin to see some progress after over fifty years of hard work. Becoming a lawyer as a woman leads to many difficulties and setbacks men don’t have to face. Ginsburg persevered and recognized that change takes time.
Self-Care and Family are Key
“You can’t have it all, all at once. Who—man or woman—has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
Even through her many cancer diagnoses, RBG set a good example for taking care of herself. Up until she was on her deathbed, she was taking care of her body mentally and physically. Ginsburg had a strict schedule, exercising to keep her mind and body in shape. RBG inspired countless women to maintain balance, making sure life isn’t all work all the time. RBG stresses the importance of finding people to lean on- for her, it was her husband Martin D. Ginsburg. Their relationship proves that it’s important to find someone who respects your goals and aspirations just as much as they respect you.
Stand Up For What You Believe In
“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
R.B.G was never afraid to speak against the norms of our society and we shouldn’t be either.
Never Give Up
“I’m dejected, but only momentarily, when I can’t get the fifth vote for something I think is very important. But then you go on to the next challenge and you give it your all. You know that these important issues are not going to go away. They are going to come back again and again. There’ll be another time, another day.”
We are that time and that day. We need to live up to RBG’s legacy and make the US a better country- one worthy of the greatest supreme court justice of our time.