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Ruth Bader Ginsburg biography

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Quick Facts

  • Maiden Name: Ruth Joan Bader
  • ZODIAC SIGN: Pisces
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Synopsis

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took office in 1993, becoming only the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She studied at Harvard with just eight other women in a class of 500. Challenged by a very male-dominated, hostile environment all along her journey, she continually moved up.

Early Life

Supreme Court Justice. Born March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. Ruth Joan Bader, the second daughter of Nathan and Cecelia Bader grew up in a low-income, working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Ruth's mother, a major influence in her life, taught her the value of independence and a good education. Cecelia herself did not attend college, but instead worked in a garment factory to help pay for her brother's college education, an act of selflessness that forever impressed Ruth. At James Madison High School in Brooklyn, Ruth worked diligently and excelled in her studies. Sadly, her mother struggled with cancer throughout Ruth's high school years, and died the day before Ruth's graduation.

Bader graduated from Cornell University in 1954, finishing first in her class. She married Martin D. Ginsburg, also a law student, that same year. The early years of their marriage were challenging, as their first child, Jane, was born shortly after Martin was drafted into the military in 1954. He served for two years and, after his discharge, the couple returned to Harvard where Ruth also enrolled. At Harvard, Ruth learned to balance life as a mother and her new role as a law student. She also encountered a very male-dominated, hostile environment, with only eight females in her class of 500. The women were chided by the law school's dean for taking the places of qualified males. But Ruth pressed on and excelled academically, eventually becoming the first female member of the prestigious legal journal, the Harvard Law Review.


Arguing for Gender Equality

Then, another challenge: Martin contracted testicular cancer in 1956, requiring intensive treatment and rehabilitation. Ruth Ginsburg attended to her young daughter and convalescing husband, taking notes for him in classes while she continued her own law studies. Martin recovered, graduated from law school, and accepted a position at a New York law firm. Ruth transferred to Columbia Law School in New York City to join her husband, where she was elected to the school's law review. She graduated first in her class in 1959. Despite her outstanding academic record, however, Ginsburg continued to encounter gender discrimination while seeking employment after graduation.

After clerking for U.S. District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri (1959-61), she taught at Rutgers University Law School (1963-72) and at Columbia (1972-80), where she became the school's first female, tenured professor. During the 1970s, she also served as the director of the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, for which she argued six landmark cases on gender equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. However, she also believed that the law was gender-blind and all groups were entitled to equal rights. One of the five cases she won before the Supreme Court involved a portion of the Social Security Act that favored women over men because
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