With the passing of Supreme Court Associate Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg I was reminded of a post from May of 2019 that I thought I’d reprise this week.
My favorite airline to fly is Southwest. They are efficient, mostly leaving and landing on time. Their flight attendants are usually full of good humor, and they offer free entertainment on the in-flight WiFi system that you can view on your phone, computer or tablet.
On a recent flight I watched On the Basis of Sex, a biopic that profiles Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a struggling attorney and new mother who faces adversity and numerous obstacles in her fight to pursue equal rights for men and women who are victims of discrimination in the 1960s and 70s.
The movie tells the story of Ginsburg taking a groundbreaking case with her attorney husband Martin that has the potential to change the direction of her career and the way the courts view gender discrimination.
Shortly after watching the movie I heard an interview with Evan Thomas discussing his recently released book - First: Sandra Day O’Connor, An Intimate Portrait of the First Woman Supreme Court Justice.
This biography, like the Ginsburg movie provides tremendous insight into a time when law schools and the field of law where bastions of male privilege.
The movie and the book tell two stories, similar in many ways, which illustrate the challenges both these women faced to make a name for themselves in the field of law which had been dominated by men since time immemorial.
While both stories serve as great illustrations of how far we’ve come as a society in creating equal opportunities for all, they are also a painful reminder of how far we, as a society still have to go in the field of equal opportunity.