Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by Irin Carmon

RBG often repeated her mother’s advice that getting angry was a waste of your own time.

“Women lose power with age, and men gain it.”

“A conversation with her is a special pleasure because there are no words that are not preceded by thoughts.”

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union.” Beautiful, yes, but as she always points out, “we the people” originally left out a lot of people. “It would not include me,” RBG said, or enslaved people, or Native Americans. Over the course of the centuries, people left out of the Constitution fought to have their humanity recognized by it.

August 19, 1981: President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman on the Supreme Court. Male justices who had made noises over the years about resigning if a woman ever joined their ranks stay put.

June 30, 2014: In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court allows corporations to refuse contraceptive coverage to women based on the employer’s religious belief.

Celia’s instructions would remain carved in her daughter’s memory. Ruth was to always be a lady. “That meant always conduct yourself civilly, don’t let emotions like anger or envy get in your way,” RBG later explained. “Hold fast to your convictions and your self-respect, be a good teacher, but don’t snap back in anger. Anger, resentment, indulgence in recriminations waste time and sap energy.” Few mothers of that time gave their daughters Celia’s second piece of advice: Always be independent.

“Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things, and when they do, it is best to be a little hard of hearing—to tune out and not snap back in anger or impatience.”

“You felt in class as if all eyes were on you and that if you didn’t perform well, you would be failing not only for yourself, but for all women,”