The First Woman to Lie in State at Our Capitol
Glass-ceiling breaker Ruth Bader Ginsburg (aka RBG) was the first female Jewish Supreme Court justice. She was fortunate that her parents encouraged her to get a B.A., and were able to pay for it. Her father was an immigrant from Ukraine, and her mother was born in New York. When Ruth was thirteen, she demonstrated her leadership abilities as the “camp rabbi” at a Jewish summer program. At age seventeen, however, just after her mother’s death, Ruth became nonobservant, bitter at having been excluded from the minyan (in Orthodox synagogues, a quorum of ten men over the age of thirteen required for traditional worship) because she was a woman.
Also at age seventeen, Ruth attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In contrast, her mother, Cora—as a fifteen-year-old high school graduate—agreed with her family to discontinue her education and help finance her brother’s college expenses. This unfortunate event led to one of RBG’s favorite quips: “What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and a Supreme Court Justice? It’s just one generation.”
In 1954, Ruth graduated with honors from Cornell. She then married Martin Ginsburg, who had completed his first year at Harvard Law School. Ruth and Martin had met at Cornell during Ruth’s first year and Martin’s second. Ruth appreciated Martin as “the first boy I ever knew who cared that I had a brain,” and both were impressed with one another’s brilliance. The youngsters decided that whatever profession they pursued, they would pursue it together. They ended up choosing law.
Deferring their law-school plans, they spent two years at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, because Martin, an ROTC officer in the Army Reserve, was called up for active duty there. In the interim, Ruth worked at the Social Security Administration, where she was demoted for becoming pregnant.
In 1956, after Martin had fulfilled his military duty, he resumed his legal studies. With an infant at home, Ruth pondered whether she could also attend Harvard Law. Both Martin and his father were highly supportive, and Ruth enrolled. Later, she concluded that her little daughter had actually aided her academic achievements: “My success in law school, I have no doubt, was in large measure because of baby Jane. I attended classes and studied diligently until four in the afternoon; the next hours were Jane’s time, spent at the park, playing silly games or singing funny songs, reading picture books and A. A. Milne poems, and bathing and feeding her. After Jane’s bedtime, I returned to the law books with renewed will. Each part of my life provided respite from the other and gave me a sense of proportion that classmates trained only in law studies lacked.”
Ruth noted that fewer than 2 percent of Harvard’s law students were women. Apparently resentful of female enrollment, the dean asked the women, “Why are you at Harvard Law School, taking the place of a man?” Frustrated that she dared not admit her true ambition, Ruth resorted to this obliging white lie: “My husband, Marty, is in the second-year class. I’m at Harvard to learn about his work so that I might be a more patient and understanding wife.”
When, during his third year at Harvard, Martin endured two surgeries and radiation therapy to treat his testicular cancer, it was to his advantage that Ruth was acquainted with the law because she gave him the help he needed with his lessons. Wonder-woman Ruth attended the lectures, took notes for both of their classes, typed the papers Marty dictated, and cared for him and little Jane.
When Marty was in good health, though, he was a wonderful helpmate. Ruth said: “Marty made the kitchen his domain and became chef supreme in our home.” The couple took equal responsibility for their earnings and parenting, which became publicly apparent in later years. One of RBG’s notable quotes is, “Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”
The Bader-Ginsburg marriage was an idyllic one, with each individual willing to pick up the slack when the other needed extra support. Ruth stated: “Marty coached me through the birth of our son, he was the first reader and critic of articles, speeches and briefs I drafted, and he was at my side constantly, in and out of the hospital, during two long bouts with cancer.”
When both attorneys had grueling schedules, their young son often got into trouble at school. To Ruth’s vexation, the school always chose to call her rather than Marty. Finally, Ruth told them, “This child has two parents. Please alternate.” After that, Marty received most of the school’s complaints. That was during the 1970s; sadly, in the 2020s, it’s still typical that only the mother is called.
If more working mothers had such accommodating husbands, there would indubitably be less wage disparity. Ruth felt blessed to have married Marty: “I betray no secret in reporting that, without him, I would not have gained a seat on the Supreme Court.”
My next post will highlight RBG’s historical contributions to women’s equality.