By: Ayesha Gulzar & Maclain Monsky
November 6, 2020

On September 18, 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away in her home in Washington, DC. That got the Glasgow community thinking about her impact on the feminist movement.

“It is the law of nature that women should be held under the dominance of men.”(-Confucius). However, over the years Ruth Bader Ginsburg has shown that no individual has dominance over another.

In her 27 years on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg remained consistently liberal. “She was always on the side of justice,” said 7th grade history teacher, Ms. Stefanie Vestal. Even though she mainly fought for women’s rights, she was also known for fighting for gender equality whether the case was about a female, male, or any other.

During the past few months, students have been mourning the loss of Ginsburg. Many who were empowered by her and looked up to her as a role model shared her impact on their lives in a recent survey. Many expressed their feelings about how she helped women stand up to sexist barriers.

“I would always be impressed that Sandra Day O’Connor was the first [female on the Supreme Court]”, said Ms. Vestal. “But then, I found out about all of the firsts that Ruth Bader Ginsburg did”, she continued.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the first women to attend Harvard Law School and was the first female tenured law professor at Columbia University. She accomplished this all while she was mothering two children as a Jewish woman during the 20th century. “All of these things kind of go under the radar, and not many people realize that she did all of these things,” Ms. Vestal mentioned.

One student said that, “She cared about everyone being equal regardless of their gender. I thought she was such a powerful, strong risk taker.” Ginsburg was ahead of her times and believed that everyone, despite their gender, should be equal even though many disagreed with this idea at the time.

Some other students who completed the survey brought up how she had not only fought for the present, but fought for future generations, so that they wouldn’t have to face the inequality she experienced. “I know things aren’t equal, but things are so much better,” replied an 8th grade respondent.

After Ginsburg’s passing, many students have been expressing their fear and uncertainty about her work being undone. “Devastated is what comes to mind. What’s gonna happen next?…In my opinion, there’s a lot of really bad things that could happen, and that’s when devastation almost turns into fear…there’s only so much I can do to change the larger scheme of things on the political side, but I was inspired by the amount of people who seemed to be on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s side [at her memorial]. That inspired me because even if things in the political realm change, I’m hoping that things in the people’s realm don’t change and people’s minds stay where RBG wanted them to stay…to let people live their lives despite their differences,” continued Ms. Vestal.

Even with Ruth Bader Ginsburg gone, we can still carry on her legacy. “In very simple ways, we can carry on her legacy. You could post on social media, wear a t-shirt, support certain causes…even though these methods are straightforward, they aren’t trivial, they’re important,” said Ms. Vestal. Even just taking part in politics and educating yourself about social issues would help further our country’s equality norms.

As of now, our country isn’t perfect. It still isn’t the most equal or accepting, but we are getting closer everyday. In an interview, Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated, “[This is] my explanation of the genius of this Constitution. It begins, ‘We, the people of the United States’. What people? In 1787, white property owning men, but the Preamble next says, “In order to become a more perfect Union”. The union has become more perfect as it has become more embracive, so that we the people today, includes people left out at the beginning.” Let’s keep Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy going, in order to form a more perfect union.