Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Parenting and Productivity

Did you know that RBG thrived as a working parent?

During her first year at Law School, she took care of a 14-month old daughter, supported her husband with a cancer battle and his second-year of Harvard Law School ALL while being in the top 10 in her class.

How in the world did she manage this??

First some background:?

RBG and her husband, Marty, had their first child, Jane, in 1955. The next year, RBG started her first year at Harvard Law School. Her husband was already in law school at Cornell at the time, but transferred to Harvard to be with Ruth after she was accepted. The two had an egalitarian marriage that was decades ahead of its time. Remember that this was the “leave-it-to-beaver” era of the 1950s.?

They were law students during the day and had a nanny that would need to be relieved at 4PM. They usually took turns in relieving the nanny and watching Jane. However, this was short-lived because Marty was soon after diagnosed with testicular cancer and had to go through two operations and radiation therapy. During this period, RBG held down the household with a Herculean effort.?

Luckily, Marty survived, graduated Law School and went on to work for a high-flying law firm in NYC. Not willing to pass up this lucrative career move, they both agreed to move to NYC and RBG transferred to Columbia Law School, reciprocating Marty’s earlier transfer. RBG would go on to be a top student at both Harvard and Columbia while raising a toddler. Inspiring is an understatement to describe this. It’s downright scary to truly imagine her schedule and work ethic.?

Back to the question on everyone’s minds, how did the heroine of our story do this?

Being the history-making figure that she is, multiple books have been written about her that describe her fiery ambition, lower biological sleep requirements than the average, as well as a supportive family who prioritized education. These things are out of scope for me and out of many people’s control. What I did notice though is that she benefited from 1) Her egalitarian marriage and 2) her parenting and productivity mindset.

Her egalitarian marriage was groundbreaking.

The 1950s were an era of strict gender roles. Women were expected to maintain the household while men were the breadwinners. In fact, RBG was one of only 9 women in a class of 500+ Harvard Law students. Regarding her husband, RBG said it best herself ”Marty was the first boy I had ever met that cared I had a brain.”?

In my experience as a working parent, this has been the most important element in my few years of working parenthood. The ability to seamlessly transition care responsibilities, have clear and fair expectations of each other, and be flexible enough to step in to help with your partner’s responsibilities have been a godsend in my household.? Research on work-family life backs this up as couples who are equally committed to both work and home see “ increased economic freedom, a more satisfying relationship, and a lower-than-average chance of divorce” compared to couples who are not equally committed.

This portion of parenting and productivity can be an entire book in and of itself. A helpful and considerate partner with whom you have rock-solid communication will multiply your efforts and divide the burdens. Conversely, an unhelpful one, becomes almost like a child that has to be managed themselves and multiplies the woes of the parent who cares the most.?

The rarity of this arrangement in the 50s shows RBG’s wisdom in choosing Marty, but her willingness and efforts to support her husband back is legendary. She supported him during his cancer and moved to NYC for the betterment of the family. She temporarily put her own desires aside and did what was best for the family. This is more easily done in a relationship with unbreakable trust that your partner feels and would do the same, as Marty had already done for her in his move to Boston.

Her mindset on spending time with her daughter.

While other parents with even only a fraction of the ambition and responsibilities that RBG had, could convince themselves that childcare is a burden that subtracts from career enhancement, RBG did not. It was just the opposite, she saw it as an energizing break and a mental refresher to spend time with her daughter. In Ruth’s own words:?

“I attribute to my daughter the responsibility for why I was such a good Law student. I went home, played with Jane, had dinner and then I was ready to go back to the books.”?

One of her biographers described it as “Her hours with Jane before bed helped leaven the library time”

When she was with her daughter, she was present. This gave her mind a much needed respite from the intensity of spending hours reading and analyzing dense legal topics.

Additionally, she leaned into her lack of time and used it to motivate her focus when she wasn’t being a caretaker.?

I like to call this, the reverse of Parkinson’s law. Parkinson’s law is colloquially thought of as “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”?

The reverse principle would be, “Work contracts to fit the time allotted for it or for the only time you have.”

RBG did just this. Knowing that she had to relieve her nanny at 4 PM, she would turn on the light switch of productivity and focus intensely because she was time-constrained. At first glance losing a major portion of your time can be seen as a detriment to productivity, RBG turned it on its head. She used it to motivate her.? After all, she had a legal system to change and glass ceilings to break. Am I right?

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Who are your favorite famous parents?