The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the woman to sit on the high court, felt like a personal loss to generations of American women, as well as young girls.
"For women, she was the most important legal advocate in American history. She changed the way the law sees gender," said Abbe Gluck, a Yale Law School professor and former clerk of Justice Ginsburg. "The United States Supreme Court did not even recognize that the constitution prohibits discrimination based on gender until 1971—and that's Justice Ginsburg's case. " Young Ginsburg spoke out loud her dissent(异议) in the face of all the honorable judges in the court, "The court takes away women's right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety. This way of thinking reflects ancient ideas about women's place in the family and under the constitution. "
In the 1950s, Ginsburg went to Harvard Law School, where she was one of nine women in a class of 500 students. There she became the first female member of the Harvard Law Review. Despite finishing top of her class when she graduated, she struggled to find employment. Eventually, in 1963, she became a law professor at Rutgers Law School, where she turned her attention to gender discrimination.
In the 1970s, the young Ginsburg convinced the entire nation, through her arguments at the Supreme Court, to adopt the view of gender equality where equal means the same-not special accommodations for either gender. She argued six cases before the Supreme Court as a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, winning five.
Gluck said, "Ginsburg cared deeply about our work lives and our personal lives. She got to know our children. She taught me what it means to lead a life committed to the causes of social justice. She demanded a lot from us, but she demands more from herself. I think it is absolutely extraordinary that Justice Ginsburg was both a hero to the women of the 1970s and then an icon to the little girls of today. "