Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice of the US Supreme Court 1993–2020
Born 1933 · Died 2020
Photo: Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States · Public domain
«Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.»
Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued six landmark sex discrimination cases before the Supreme Court in the 1970s, winning five, and then sat on that court for twenty-seven years. Her dissents made her an unexpected popular figure late in life.
Key achievements
- Justice of the US Supreme Court, 1993–2020
- Columbia Law School's first tenured female professor, 1972
Universities
New York, Manhattan
Transferred to Columbia Law School and graduated joint first in her class in 1959; later its first tenured female law professor.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Began her law degree at Harvard Law School in 1956 as one of nine women in a class of about five hundred.
Facts
- At Harvard the dean asked the women in her class to justify taking a place that could have gone to a man.
- She made the Law Review at both Harvard and Columbia, and cared for a husband with cancer and a toddler while doing it.
- Despite finishing top of her class, no New York law firm would hire her, and she began her career as a clerk.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.