Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a feminist. Not because she burned a bra, which she probably didn't, but just because she wanted women to be considered equal to men in the eyes of the world and the Court. She would often quote a woman named Sarah Grimke who had wanted to be a lawyer and judge in the 1800's:
I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.
Ginsburg was not a woman to march the streets, or yell and scream. She fought with law and through law. She argued but would never raise her voice. Ginsburg believed people could actually NOT be heard by yelling because it shuts other people down. You must be able to bring a person to the table, she said, and screaming doesn't do it.
In fact, her "best buddy" was someone she almost never agreed with on the bench, Justice Antonin Scalia. She was a liberal stalwart; he was an extreme conservative. Yet they managed to find common ground personally and listened to each other professionally even though they never saw issues the same way. Ginsburg said Scalia's critiques made her better and gave her what she needed to strengthen the majority opinion.
Sonia Pressman Fuentes joins Dr. Wendy to talk about feminism, activism and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Fuentes herself is one of feminism's founding mothers. As the first female lawyer in the EEOC’s General Counsel’s Office, she drafted many of the EEOC’s landmark decisions. She was also a co-founder of the National Organization for Women in 1966. Fuentes is the author of Eat First -- You Don't Know What They'll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter. It's available at Amazon.
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