Breaking Barriers: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Fight for Equality & Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer who trail-blazed a path for women in the legal field, serving as a cultural icon and champion for all forms of equality. She championed racial, religious and gender equality throughout her career, and her influence undoubtedly reshaped the legal landscape of the United States, leaving an indelible mark on the fight for equality and justice in the country. 

Despite her promising start and eventual rise to power as one of the most influential legal figures in the United States, Ginsburg's early career was marked by discrimination based mainly on the fact that she was not a man. She was unable to secure an appointment within the judiciary after graduating from Columbia Law School as joint first in her class. This led her to work briefly at the New York District Court circuit as a law clerk before returning to Columbia as the first tenured female law professor. Also serving as general counsel for the Women's Rights Project, Ginsburg won five out of the six cases she argued before the Supreme Court between 1973 and 1976, and her reputation began to build. This culminated in her nomination for the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. Ginsburg served there until 1993 when she joined the U.S. Supreme Court following her nomination by President Bill Clinton.  

"She championed racial, religious and gender equality"

Ginsburg's impact within the legal field is extensive, even from her time in law school. She was the first woman ever to serve on two college legal reviews; both Harvard and Columbia, and she was the co-founder of the first legal journal to focus on women's rights. This activism broadly defined her career; she championed racial, religious and gender equality. While she has a seemingly mixed record when it comes to her actions on cases pertaining to these things, it is clear that she ultimately advocated for freedom in all aspects. This is no more apparent than in her work for women's rights. Her work as general counsel at the ACLU Women's Rights Project established the principle of equal treatment in the law for women and men, making numerous laws treating both genders differently obsolete, whilst simultaneously banishing many archaic stereotypes within the law. Moreover, her opinion in U.S. v Virginia during her time as associate justice on the Court of Appeals held unconstitutional the Virginia Military Institute's practice of excluding women with correct qualifications from admission.  

Her defence of women's reproductive freedom was a longstanding one during her career. She argued that pregnancy discrimination is sex discrimination, and her brief in the 1972 case Struck v. Secretary of Defence showed that reproductive freedom is inextricable from the fight for women's equality. This was highly influential in a period when the framework for modern sex discrimination law and substantive due process was still being developed. She held the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) stating that 'women have the right to determine for themselves free from unwarranted governmental intrusion, whether or not to bear children'. In Roe, however, Ginsburg criticised the decision for abruptly ending the emerging movement aimed at liberalising abortion laws, which could have fostered a more substantial and lasting consensus in favour of abortion rights, foreshadowing what was to come decades later.

"Her transformative contributions reshaped the U.S. legal landscape"

It is near impossible to discuss the impact of Ruth Bader Ginsburg without acknowledging the broader affect her death has had on the Supreme Court and, in a more contemporary context, on women's reproductive rights. In the recent U.S. election, there was much worry about how these rights would be impacted following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Without Ginsburg's vote, the newly conservative-heavy Supreme Court voted to reverse over half a century of constitutional protection for abortion. The new 6-3 conservative majority, namely Amy Coney Barrett, 'began ravaging the vestiges of Ginsburg's work on women's rights and access to abortion'. This immediate reversal of what Ginsburg fought so hard for shows her intense impact on women's legal issues, that her work was only the beginning, and that there is a long way to go for true gender equality under the law.  

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's legacy transcends her monumental legal victories, embodying a relentless pursuit of justice and equality. Her transformative contributions reshaped the U.S. legal landscape, ensuring gender equality remains a cornerstone of the law. As a global role model, Ginsburg inspires generations of women in law to champion progress and challenge systemic inequities.