How to RBG

A lot has been written about Ruth Bader Ginsburg since her death last month, and I won’t add to the lists of impressive cases and unwinnable arguments that she, well, won. (But there are many.) I want to focus on how she navigated all the ‘firsts’ she managed to tackle in her long life. It’s what impresses me the most and where I think a huge part of her legacy will endure. 

We know she continually fought hard for the equal rights of women. In part, that passion was rooted in the discrimination she experienced firsthand. Just one example came while she was at Harvard Law School, where, as one of only nine women enrolled at the time, the Dean asked why she and her eight classmates were taking up seats that could be filled by men. 

In 1963, she was hired as a professor at Rutgers University (where she was the first woman to receive tenure) and discovered that her salary was lower than her male counterparts. Her subsequent campaign for equal pay resulted in a higher salary for herself and other women. Her pursuit of equality wasn’t just about her pay; it was also about the experience and treatment of other women at Rutgers.

That perspective of helping others is what’s resonating with me right now. It is one thing to activate and pursue opportunities for yourself in the workplace, your neighborhoods, or your local and regional governments. It’s another thing to consider who around you is not offered opportunities or access. That, to me, is RBG.

While everything starts with us — with our individual action and individual accountability — when we get to the point of being heard and seen, how will we use our power to create opportunity for others? How will we make space for those that aren’t seated at the table? How are we going to show up with a little RBG spirit?

I want to make her contribution to our world into a verb. To RBG: To think of others and support others. Ask, “how am I going to RBG today?” Make an effort to address inequity and discrimination in our small, day-to-day worlds. It can’t just be about us.

I think the best way to honor her is to recognize that she did giant things (as a tiny woman) by harnessing her own power and responsibility. She did massive things by being one of only a few throughout her life — a woman in a man’s world; a Jewish woman in a predominantly Christian world. We don’t need to be everything; we can be one thing and we can be really, really good at it. 

She was all about women having agency and having that agency validated by the society in which they live. She wanted women to be considered as valuable and whole unto themselves without permission or compromise. Whatever your politics, you cannot fault a woman for arguing that women should have equal agency as men. 

And that was what she was all about: agency for herself within her life, and for everyone else. That is the light she shines for us. I encourage you to bring her dedication to helping others and her spirit of serving people who are not represented in your world, whether you agree with her or align with her politics. And always — always — err on the side of truth, justice, and equality.