Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes
I do think that being the second [female Supreme Court Justice] is wonderful, because it is a sign that being a woman in a place of importance is no longer extraordinary.
Hunt, Helena, editor. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: In Her Own Words. Agate Publishing, 2018.
Prior to WWII there were few women in the labor force, and the traditional “values” of American society relegated women to be homemakers. However with so many men under arms, there were not enough workers to achieve the war production that was necessary. So changes had to be made in public attitudes, not only towards women working, but the nature of the work that they are capable of and ought to be doing. So the government took a proactive role in changing public attitudes towards women in the workforce. It was a successful effort, and the sociological and psychological effects are still felt, half a century later. See {584781}.
In 1876 Lockwood applied for admission to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and was refused. She lobbied heavily and in 1879 Congress enabled women to qualify (see {598546}) and on March 3 of that year Belva Lockwood became the first woman to be admitted to the Supreme Court bar.
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in September 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton, replacing retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was generally viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. She eventually became part of the liberal wing of the Court as the Court shifted to the right over time. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg wrote notable majority opinions, including United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005).
