Ruth Bader Ginsburg: How She Built Gender Equality Into Law

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated first in her class at Columbia Law School, she expected doors to open, but instead found herself turned away from every major law firm in New York — not for lack of talent, but because she was a woman. That experience of discrimination shaped her legal career, building a constitutional framework for gender equality one case at a time.

Born: March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York ·
Died: September 18, 2020, Washington, D.C. ·
Supreme Court tenure: 1993–2020 ·
Notable cases argued: Reed v. Reed, Frontiero v. Richardson ·
Primary legacy: Gender equality under the law

The key facts about Ruth Bader Ginsburg — eight data points that define her life and career — reveal a woman who overcame systemic barriers and reshaped American law.

What was so special about Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Her landmark legal cases for gender equality

• Reed v. Reed (1971) — Ginsburg co‑wrote the brief that led the Court to strike down sex‑based discrimination in estate administration for the first time. (Academy of Achievement)
• Frontiero v. Richardson (1973) — Argued that sex discrimination should be subject to strict scrutiny; she convinced eight justices that laws treating men and women differently were unconstitutional. (ACLU)
• United States v. Virginia (1996) — As a justice, wrote the majority opinion forcing Virginia Military Institute to admit women. (NPR)

Each case built on the last. By deliberately choosing plaintiffs — including men — Ginsburg demonstrated that gender roles hurt everyone, not just women. The ACLU notes that her approach proved sex discrimination was part of a broader system of patriarchy. She went on to argue six sex‑discrimination cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1973 and 1976, winning five.

Her strategic use of the Equal Protection Clause

Rather than attacking all gender stereotypes at once, she picked narrow cases that forced the Court to apply the Equal Protection Clause to sex. The result: a legal foundation that later underpinned rulings on everything from military academies to workplace pay equity.

Cultural status as a feminist icon

• “Notorious RBG” — the nickname, a play on the rapper Notorious B.I.G., went viral in the 2010s.
• Two films — the documentary RBG (2018) and the biopic On the Basis of Sex (2018) — brought her story to millions.
• Her dissents, especially in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, became rallying cries for progressive causes (NHCJE).

What started as a legal project became a cultural movement. The National Women’s History Museum notes she was already eighty‑seven and still working to advance gender equality on the Supreme Court.

What did Ruth Bader Ginsburg do for LGBTQ?

Key Supreme Court rulings she supported

Ginsburg consistently voted in favor of LGBTQ protections, most notably in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized same‑sex marriage nationwide. She was also in the majority in United States v. Windsor (2013), which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.

Opinion in United States v. Windsor (2013)

Her vote in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

Ginsburg was in the 5–4 majority. She had already made history in 2013 by becoming the first Supreme Court justice to officiate a same‑sex wedding (for longtime friend and Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser). That personal act mirrored her jurisprudence: equality under the law, without exception. (NPR)

How was Ruth treated unfairly because of her gender?

Early career discrimination despite top grades

• Graduated first in her class at Columbia Law School in 1959 but received no job offers from New York’s major law firms (National Women’s History Museum).
• Turned down for a clerkship by Justice Felix Frankfurter, who reportedly said a woman on his staff would be “distracting” (Academy of Achievement).
• Demoted from a clerk position at a U.S. District Court after becoming pregnant — her supervisor assumed she would not return (Equal Rights Advocates).

These experiences were not just personal frustrations; they became the raw material for her legal strategy. She later said they taught her that “the pedestal on which some thought women were standing all too often turned out to be a cage.”

Challenges finding a clerkship after law school

Eventually, after her mentor Professor Gerald Gunther recommended her, she secured a clerkship with U.S. District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri. But only after she agreed to take a pay cut because the court did not know how to classify a female clerk. The pattern — talented woman, blocked by bias — repeated at every career juncture.

How discrimination shaped her legal work

Ginsburg did not waste the indignity. She channeled it into the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, which she co‑founded in 1972.

What famous words did Ruth Bader Ginsburg always say?

“Fight for the things you care about…”

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

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, often quoted in speeches and interviews (Academy of Achievement)

This sentence, from a 2016 speech, became her most quotable legacy. It encapsulates her legal philosophy: aggressive advocacy delivered with collegiality.

On dissent and disagreement

Ginsburg said that dissents “speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions.” She made the point in a 2015 NPR interview. Her own dissents — especially in Ledbetter v. Goodyear — eventually inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2009.

“Women belong in all places…”

“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, responding to a question about the Supreme Court’s lack of gender diversity (NPR)

That principle guided her own life. She became only the second woman — and the first Jewish woman — to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, confirmed by the Senate on August 10, 1993.

What happened when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died?

Immediate political reactions

Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., on September 18, 2020, from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Within hours, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he would proceed with a nomination to replace her, reversing his own 2016 precedent. The move sparked a firestorm of debate and ultimately led to the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Impact on Supreme Court balance

Her death shifted the Court’s ideological balance from a 5‑4 conservative majority to a 6‑3 one. Within a year, the new majority overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a ruling Ginsburg had long warned against. Her departure did not just end a chapter — it opened a new, more contentious one for American constitutional law.

Memorial and public mourning

Ginsburg lay in state at the U.S. Capitol on September 25, 2020 — the first woman ever to receive that honor. Thousands of mourners lined the steps, many wearing lace collars in tribute to her signature “dissent collar.” (NPR)

How many husbands did Ruth Ginsburg have?

Her marriage to Martin D. Ginsburg

• Married Martin “Marty” D. Ginsburg on June 23, 1954.
• Martin was a highly respected tax attorney at the firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
• They remained married until his death from cancer on June 27, 2010.

Marty was one of the few husbands of his era who openly supported his wife’s career, even cooking and managing home life. Ginsburg described him as “the only young man I dated who cared that I had a brain.”

Long partnership and support

When Ginsburg argued cases before the Supreme Court, Marty was often in the audience. When she was appointed to the D.C. Circuit, he gave up a partnership in New York to move to Washington. The partnership was a rare example of mutual professional ambition in a marriage — and it gave Ginsburg the stability she needed to take on the legal establishment. She had one husband, one marriage, and one deep partnership that lasted 56 years.

What did RBG say about being a woman?

General advice on being a woman in law

“As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”

On the “different voice” theory

Ginsburg was skeptical of the idea that women judges decide cases differently. She often said, “I would not presume to say that women judges are better than men judges.” But she did argue that the judiciary needed to reflect the population it served — not because women bring a “different voice,” but because fairness demands representation.

Quotes on women’s rights and perseverance

• “I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” (attributed to Ginsburg, quoting Sarah Moore Grimké)
• “Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”

Her consistent message: be strategic, not emotional. She believed that patience, precedent, and persuasion — not rage — would ultimately win equality for women under the Constitution.

Timeline

Ginsburg’s life followed a deliberate arc, from legal outsider to constitutional insider. These are the moments that mattered most.

The pattern: Ginsburg spent her early career building a legal framework, her middle career applying it as an appellate judge, and her final years guarding it from erosion. The timeline is not just a sequence of dates — it is the story of a singular legal architecture.

Clarity section

Confirmed facts

• Ginsburg argued 6 gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court and won 5
• She was the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol
• Appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993
• Her husband was Martin D. Ginsburg, a prominent tax attorney
• She died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer
• She co‑founded the ACLU Women’s Rights Project in 1972

What’s unclear

• The exact number of LGBTQ‑related cases she influenced indirectly through her votes and dissents is not officially tallied
• Her personal views on some specific political issues — beyond what appears in her written opinions — are not fully documented
• The full extent of her role in shaping the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act’s legislative strategy after her dissent is not publicly known
• Whether she actively lobbied Justice Kennedy or other colleagues in key 5‑4 cases (e.g., Obergefell) has never been confirmed
• She wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Virginia (1996) — source Wikipedia
• She graduated first in her class from Columbia Law School in 1959 — source Academy of Achievement

The implication: even well-documented lives contain gaps that remain unresolved.

Quotes section

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

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, address at the National Constitution Center, 2016

“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, interview with NPR, 2018

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s granddaughter, as reported by NPR

These words, from different voices, capture the spectrum of Ginsburg’s influence — from personal philosophy to public legacy.

Summary

Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not just win cases — she rewrote the Constitution’s understanding of equality. Her incremental, plaintiff‑driven strategy transformed the Equal Protection Clause from a shield against race discrimination into a tool for gender justice. For today’s lawyers and activists, the lesson is clear: pick your fights carefully, build your record patiently, and never let the door close without making it easier for the next woman to push it open.

Related reading: Jeffrey Dahmer: Biography, Crimes, and Trial · Martin Bryant: verified facts about the Port Arthur massacre

För att förstå hennes juridiska arv fullt ut kan man även utforska RBG:s biografi och Sverige-kopplingar, vilket belyser hur hennes inflytande sträckte sig utanför USA.

Frequently asked questions

These questions cover the most common curiosities, each answered with verified facts.