What Ruth Bader Ginsburg means to me

In 1974, I found myself facing a law school admissions officer, who was going to interview me and determine if I were suitable to attend her law school. I sat there nervously, waiting for her first question. My brother had already gone through the process and told me how she peppered him with questions. My reasons for going to law school were simple. My older brother, my hero, was going to law school and I wanted to do whatever he did. After all, we were very similar. I also wanted to be self-employed and independent. It was as simple as that. I watched the admissions officer's face but she was looking down and shuffling my papers. Finally, she looked up and said, "Okay, you're in." I was surprised. "But you didn't ask me a single question," I said. She looked me straight in the face and responded, "Look, you prepared your application a year ahead of time, your college grades are great, and you're a woman. You're in!"

I was admitted to the California Bar at the ripe old age of 22. At that time, women comprised only 10% of the attorneys and we faced enormous obstacles. Someone decided it was okay for us to do family or contract law, but not trial work. We wore skirts because we would have been marked as competing with men if we attempted to wear pants. (Now, most women wear pants, leaving the uncomfortable skirts and heels at home.) I wish I had a nickel for every time a male attorney or judge mistook me for a secretary, asked me to get coffee or to go to bed with them. Those nickels could have funded my 401(k) plan for the rest of my life.  

Appearing in court presented another set of problems. Male attorneys and judges were often hostile as if we didn't know our place was really in the kitchen or the bedroom. When I took over a case from a male attorney (who later became a judge), I tried to discuss the case with him. He took one look at me and exclaimed, "I am being replaced by a woman! No way am I talking with you." When I appeared in Court to ask for the right to amend a pleading, my male opponent objected and the judge replied, "I am going to give this little lady anything she asks for!" Good for me but totally unsatisfying as to showing the proper respect for an attorney.

We had only a handful of women to look up to, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who blazed the trail ahead of us. When I faced a new client who said, "I want a real pit bull for an attorney. Are you sure you are up to it," I thought of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how she did not have to resort to yelling or threats to get her point across. Pit bulls cost more money and they aren't always effective. Some clients watch too much television.

When Ruth encouraged women to help others who were less fortunate, I turned my sights away from big business and focused on the "little guy." I spent most of my career working for people and helping them in any way I could. Sometimes just by giving advice or calling another colleague. No one left without a possible remedy for his or her problems. 

I certainly admired, no worshipped, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I would tell others that she was my aunt, only she didn't know it. Of course, she wasn't, although I wanted her to be. When I looked at some comments on the Internet, here are some of her accomplishments:

Because of her.....

* Women can take out a credit card in their own names without

a male signatory

* Women can't be fired for being pregnant

* Women can earn admittance into military academies

* Women are legally protected from any form of violence

* Women are allowed to live with their significant other without

being married

* Women can ask for divorce due to domestic violence

* Women can open their own bank accounts without male

permission

* Women can adopt a baby as a single woman

* Women are allowed to sue companies for pay discrimination

even after six months have passed

and on...and on...and on.

I will miss you, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I will always try to follow your example. I hope you will get your wish that a new justice will be appointed after the election. It may not be possible, but we will fight for that dream.