The Sixth Annual Capital City Constitution Day Celebration on Sept. 12 took a unique look at women in the Constitution with a very special guest: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg had a conversation with GW Law School Professor Maeva Marcus in front of a packed Lisner Auditorium about her own experiences as a woman working in the justice system and the evolving role of women in the United States Constitution.
When Ginsburg attended Harvard Law School, she was one of only nine women in a class of 500. In the early 20th century, the biggest problem for female lawyers was securing their first job out of law school because most law firms were not looking for “lady lawyers.”
Despite these hardships, she graduated at the top of her class and began a clerkship for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York following graduation.
Ginsburg spent much of her life advocating for women’s rights. In 1972, she co-founded the Women’s Rights Movement at the American Civil Liberties Union and from there went on to argue several landmark cases in front of the Supreme Court.
One of these cases was Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, which argued for the development and application of the intermediate scrutiny Equal Protection standard of review for classifications based on sex.
This work outlined the “pernicious effect of the rigid line between stay at home women and making bread men,” Ginsburg said, and ultimately led to the end of gender discrimination in many areas of the law.
Throughout her career, Ginsburg saw many changes made to the law and society itself. Amendments like Title VII and Title IX significantly improved gender equality within the employment and education systems.
“If you pick up any constitution written since 1950, any place in the world, there will be a provision on the equal citizenship stature of men and women,” Ginsburg said. “It’s not in our constitution.”
She stressed her desire to see a statement of women’s full citizenship in the Constitution.
“It’s a basic tenant of our society,” she said.
Ginburg referenced Goesaert v. Cleary, a 1948 Supreme Court case that argued whether or not wives and daughters of male non-bar owners can work as barmaids. The case showed how the 20th century Court upheld cases relating to the discrimination of women.
The Court held that, “It was okay. Bars can be unpleasant,” Ginsburg said jokingly.
Ginsburg and Marcus went back-and-forth for forty-five minutes, discussing historical cases for women’s rights and during Ginsburg’s career.
The justice highlighted two cases that she argued for the plaintiffs.
Ginbrug represented Susan Struck, a pregnant Air Force captain, who was told that she would be discharged from duty if she did not have an abortion. Struck wanted to take a few weeks off for childbirth and give the baby up for adoption. The Air Force said no. At the same time, drug addicts and alcoholics in the Air Force were put in rehab facilities and were not discharged from duty.
The Supreme Court waived the case in 1972 and changed the Air Force regulations in favor of Struck.
The case entails, “I choose birth but the government is telling me that it’s at the price of my career,” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg wrote the plaintiff’s brief for Reed v. Reed in 1971, a “heart wrenching” Equal Protection case about whether or not a mother could be the executor of her son’s estate after he committed suicide. The Supreme Court said that men should not have preference over the administration of estates; gender must not be a factor.
“As long as one lives, one can learn,” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg described the progress that her and her female colleagues Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan have made on the Supreme Court.
“Those women are not shrinking violets,” Ginsburg said. “Women are here to stay.”