March 8, 2021

Today is International Women's Day and the start of the second week of Women’s History Month in the US.  International Women's Day has occurred for well over a century with the first gathering held in 1911.

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

International Women's Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:

• celebrate women's achievements
• raise awareness about women's equality
• lobby for accelerated gender parity
• fundraise for female-focused charities

In the US, Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.”  Presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month” and celebrating the contributions and specific achievements women have made to the United States.

Our spotlight this week is on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away in 2020 after 27 years on the Supreme Court.  She was a champion for equal rights who became a social icon and never lost her spirit and quest for equality and  justice.

Here are some little know facts about this special person:

In school, Ruth Bader Ginsburg played the cello, was a member of the honor society, and was a baton twirler amongst other things!

The day before Ginsburg’s high school graduation ceremony, her mother passed away. Ruth missed the ceremony to grieve with her father, but continued to honor her mother’s memory through hard work and academic excellence.

Ruth Bader met Martin Ginsburg when she was seventeen and an undergraduate student at Cornell University, though they were both born in Brooklyn. They married a few days after her graduation and remained married for 56 years until he passed away in 2010.  Ruth and Martin had a marriage notable in its time for being based in equality and partnership. They split housework, childcare, and cooking.

While Ginsburg and her husband were both attending Harvard Law School, he became sick with cancer. Ruth took care of him and their infant daughter all while attending classes and keeping her husband caught up with his schoolwork as well.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg knew firsthand the struggles of mothers in the workplace. In fact, when she learned that she was pregnant with her second child, she wore baggy clothes until her contract as a professor at Rutgers University Law School was renewed out of concern for discriminatory employment practices.

In 1972, she became the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law School. In 1980, she was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Justice Ginsburg was the second woman and the first Jewish woman ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was appointed in 1993 when she was 60 years old. During her years on the bench, she has been a champion of gay rights, women’s rights, the poor, and many other marginalized groups.

Even though Sandra Day O’Connor sat on the U.S. Supreme Court for twelve years before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed, the court did not have a women’s bathroom until Ginsburg pointed it out.

"People ask me sometimes... 'When will there be enough women on the court?' And my answer is, 'When there are nine.' People are shocked, but there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that."

"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."

Check out this children’s book to help you talk to your kids about powerful and success women and about our nation’s highest court.  Disagreeing does not make you disagreeable!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28210996-i-dissent