Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, at the age of 87 due to cancer complications. Before becoming a Supreme Court Justice, she led a campaign against sexism as a lawyer. She extended the 14th Amendment equal-rights clause so that women could get equal Social Security benefits, military housing allowance, administer estates, and serve on juries. She also implemented new terms, such as gender, "(so as not to distract male jurists with the word sex)".
Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn in 1933 and went to Cornell as a top student. There, she met Martin Ginsburg, her future husband, and the first man who "cared that [she] had a brain". After graduating, they both went to Harvard Law school. Unfortunately, Martin was called up to active duty, so she worked for the Social Security Administration in Oklahoma and even got demoted for working while pregnant. When they returned to Harvard, Martin came down with a type of testicular cancer, so Ginsburg had to write both their papers all while raising a child and being scorned by the dean for taking up a man's role. After her husband graduated, he got a prestigious job in New York, so she went with him to finish her degree at Columbia. It was this discrimination that influenced her future life as a lawyer.
In 1993, President Clinton had a Supreme Court seat to fill, and although she wasn't at the top, Ginsburg made the list. She was not Clinton's first choice because of the fact that many women didn't see her as a feminist anymore - she did not make bold statements, instead slowly wearing down laws, and she was considered the stuff of yesterday. Luckily, Martin was great at publicity - he tirelessly worked to change her image and convinced the women that she was an adamant supporter of overcoming the patriarchy. She was confirmed in a 96 to 3 vote.
Over time, she gained fame for her dissents - when the court tilted right, she read her dissents out loud in hopes that they would see their errors. Eventually, she gained recognition for everything she had done - memorials and merchandise were made for her, and she was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard Law.
"Over the decades, Ginsburg quietly persisted—through discrimination, through Marty’s 2010 death, through more illness and debilitating treatments than any one person should have to endure—without complaint, holding on and out, until sheer will was no longer enough."
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