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The making of the great dissenter

Ginsburg's unwavering faith in law and its power to change the course of societies had been subject of debate among many modern-day feminists

In 1998, after spending almost nearly two decades in a tyre company, Alabama resident Lilly Ledbetter received an anonymous note that left her shattered. It spotlighted how grossly underpaid she had been as compared to her male colleagues. When Ledbetter decided to take her employers to court, the odds weren't in her favour. A 5-4 ruling eventually stated that there could be no recourse since Ledbetter had not filed the suit within 180 days of receiving her first paycheck, as had been the norm. In what turned out to be an iconic dissent, Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that limiting the scope of the law to 180 days furthered gender-based pay discrimination. She called for the law to broaden its view to help women. When, in 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act finally eased the norms on the time period required to file discrimination suits, Ginsburg's dissent was often cited as a turning point. Even now, when media houses reached out to Ledbetter to gather her thoughts on Ginsburg's death, she remembered being told of her loud dissent and her calling out how the law was not in touch with the ground realities of the time.
There is some comfort in knowing that's the Ruth Bader Ginsburg that will remain etched in popular imagination - a litigator almost gladiatorial in her pursuit of women's rights. The 87-year-old associate judge of the Supreme Court of US passed away recently owing to pancreatic cancer, and while tributes have been pouring in from all over the world, something about the loss feels personal. Reams have already been written about women mourning Ginsburg's death by wearing "dissent collar" earrings to lighting the RBG candle. Pop culture's lionisation of Ginsburg is coming in handy. And while we all mourn Ginsburg, there is something to be said about how 'the great dissenter' also unites us even when we often stand divided on various ideas and interpretations of feminism. What is it about Ginsburg's popularity that cuts across generations and demographics?
Her life has inspired biographies and films. Despite the embellishments, there is little to contest that education and social justice had been an important part of Ginsburg's formative years as her Jewish father, an emigrant, set out to make a living with his Polish-American mother. Education was important because it ensured one's place in the world and for the Bader family, it was something more than earning a living. Ginsburg imbibed these values at an early age, but her idealism was at odds with the reality of her time. By the time she received her law degree, she was not only married but also had a child.
For women aspiring for a career in law, the going was not easy. Ginsburg often narrated the story of her Supreme Court colleague Sandra Day O'Connor (the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court), who, upon graduating from Stanford Law School, found it difficult to get a job owing to her gender. It wasn't until O'Connor offered to work for free for a firm to assess her merits that she found employment. Ginsburg's own journey wasn't any different. In the early part of her career, she struggled to find jobs. It is said that Columbia professor Gerald Gunther threatened to never endorse any other Columbia student to Southern District Court of New York judge Edmund Palmieri if Ginsburg was denied an opportunity to work.
Despite the challenges (Ginsburg also recalled being mistaken for O'Connor way too often by a number of male colleagues because they weren't used to interacting with many women in the court), she maintained that the court had been the most collegial place. Her unwavering faith in law and its power to change the course of societies had been subject of debate among many modern-day feminists. But it is important to remember that Ginsburg had been a product of her time. She did not set out to challenge male authority as much as she set out to show a mirror on why women's participation in decision-making is important for societies to evolve.
Over the years, one also spotted in Ginsburg a more vocal and vociferous critic of conservative ideas on reproduction and voting rights. This is the age that also gave birth to the 'notorious RBG' merchandise and memes and catapulted her further to popular imagination. Despite acquiring a broader spectrum in pop culture, Ginsburg's characterised by her composure. In her, the feminists all over the world possibly had a calm and reassuring figure. Someone who would ask them to fight the big fight, but "do it in a way that will lead others to join you." -anamika@khaleejtimes.com