Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History - Volume XXIX

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It seems like Justice Ginsburg often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to recognition for her achievements in American law. After all, she wasn't the first female Supreme Court Justice. But based on a recent article in Slate by Dahlia Lithwick, I have to say that she's done an incredible amount for gender equality in the country. From the article:
She scored five victories in six Supreme Court appeals, using the 14th Amendment to slowly and systematically eradicate gender discrimination in one law after another, pushing the courts to scrutinize laws that classify on the basis of gender with a standard higher than the deferential "rational basis" standard.

Indeed she did. And unlike the Palinistas referenced in Lithwick's article, I think it's dreadfully important to recognize the women who have made my life and my work possible. Thanks to the past and current work of this incredible woman, institutional discrimination against my gender has been slowly and surely brought to the light of day and seen for what it is - wrong.

For such a proper and elegant woman, Justice Bader Ginsburg is delightfully and thankfully ill-behaved.

__________
Flutter of the robe to UCF heartthrob Eric of Standing on the Shoulders of Giant Midgets, who brought the Slate article to my attention.

7 comments:

Eric said...

Glad I could help; I figured you'd enjoy Lithwick's profile of Justice Ginsburg. Like former Justice O'Connor, she's a hell of a woman.

As an entirely inappropriate aside: the women of the UCF sometimes remark on their celebrity seraglios; Dahlia Lithwick is in mine. Not sure why I need to point that out, but there it is.

-----

dedize: a remark sometimes heard from the first detective arriving at a Cockney crime scene.

"Dedizie? We know wot kilt 'im then?"

Carol Elaine said...

Those who like to believe they have picked themselves up by the bootstraps sometimes forget that they wouldn't even have boots were it not for the women who came before.

This. Yes.

A great big "Thank You" goes out to Justice Ginsburg, Justice O'Connor and all of the other women who made sure I - and my fellow women - have boots today (though mine are actually sans straps).

Janiece said...

Actually, Eric, Dahlia Lithwick is on my short list for my same-sex seraglio.

Man, she's smart. I love it when I see an article by her on my Slate podcast or in Newsweek.

Stacey said...

Under the "she worked hard so we wouldn't have to" category - Jane Addams founded the Chicago Federation of Settlements, became a garbage inspector for the 19th Ward, Near West Side, Vice President of the National Woman’s Trade Union League, served on the Chicago Board of Education, elected first woman President of the Conference of Charities and Corrections, mediated the garment workers’ strike, was the first Vice President of the American Woman Suffrage Association, the first head of the National Federation of Settlement and Neighborhood Centers, went to the Senate building in Chicago , she spoke at a conference in Budapest, Hungary at the International Alliance of Women Suffrage, helped organize the Woman’s Peace Party and subsequently became first chair, presided at the International Congress of Women at the Hague, Netherlands, founded Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom becoming their President for the first ten years, helped found the ACLU and the NAACP, started the first Juvenile Court system, presided over the conference of Pan-Pacific Women’s Association in Hawaii, and was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize all between 1894 and 1931. She also wrote over 2,000 articles, gave hundreds of speeches and helped over 10,000 people a week (in 1920)through her settlement house which became the standards for rec centers.

Janiece said...

Stacey, thanks for the run-down. An ill-behaved woman, indeed!

Nathan said...

Stacey,

Nobody likes a showoff.

Jeri said...

I like showoffs. :)