In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m reviewing Free to Be Ruth Bader Ginsburg The Story of Women and Law by Teri Kanefield. It was published in August 2016 by Armon Books. Kanefield is a lawyer and an author (though not in that chronological order). She writes novels, short stories, essays, children’s stories, and non-fiction works for children, YA, and adults. She is an excellent biographer. Her books are meticulously researched, and her sources are well documented. This biography is suitable for middle grades to adults. We can all learn something from reading this book.

Ginsburg’s father, Nathan was an emigrant from Odesa, Ukraine. Her mother Celia was born in New York. Her parents were from Krakow, Poland. Celia was exceptionally bright. She graduated from high school at fifteen but was not allowed to continue her education because the family was saving up to send her brother to college. Celia found a job and contributed part of her earnings to help pay for her brother’s education. After she married, she had to quit her job. Nathan was a hard worker but had no head for business, so Celia took care of the books and marketing for the furrier business.

Celia stressed the importance of education to Ruth and hoped she would someday become a history teacher because she believed teaching was an acceptable profession for women unlike medicine or the law. She died of cancer during Ruth’s senior year in high school. When Ruth was accepted to Cornell University, she originally felt she should honor her mother by becoming a teacher, but her love of the law won out and Ruth majored in government. She met Marty Ginsburg at Cornell. They married in 1954 after she graduated. They moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma where Marty was stationed as an ROTC officer in the United States Army Reserve after being called to active duty. She worked for the Social Security Administration office. When Ginsburg became pregnant with her first child she was demoted. Ten years later, when Ruth was pregnant with her son, James, she concealed her pregnancy for as long as possible fearing she would again face work discrimination in the workplace.

After her daughter, Jane was born and Marty completed his service, Ginsburg was accepted at Harvard Law. She was one of nine women in a class of 500 men. The Dean of Harvard Law invited all the women to a get-together at his home and publicly asked each woman to explain why she deserved a place at Harvard Law school that would have gone to a man.

Ginsburg never set out to be a feminist, but experiences such as her demotion for getting pregnant and being called out by the Dean of Harvard Law highlighted an awareness that had always been there. Men and women were treated differently by society. There were different rules for men and women in the Orthodox Jewish faith she was raised with. There were different rules for school admissions and employment. The one place she never felt unequal was her marriage. She and Marty shared responsibilities equally. He respected her for her intelligence and never tried to talk down to her.

When Marty was offered a job at a prestigious tax law firm in New York, Ruth petitioned Harvard to let her complete her last year at Columbia Law School and still receive her degree from Harvard. When they declined, Ruth never looked back. She is one of the only people to make law-review at both Harvard and Columbia.

In addition to taking us through the extraordinary life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Kanefield talks about women in the legal profession – those who struggled to become lawyers in a time when women were not allowed to enter the legal profession, Ginsburg’s contemporaries, and the women who have come after. Their experiences collectively set the tone for Ginsburg’s fight for gender equality.

When women began fighting for the right to attend universities that only accepted males, it was because a certain field of study or academic discipline (law) was not offered at a university where women could enroll. A few of these cases did make it to State Supreme Courts and eventually the United States Supreme Court, but the all-male courts dismissed the suits stating women were too delicate to practice law or lacked the mental decisiveness necessary to argue cases before the court. In frontier towns and during wartime when there was a shortage of men, women were often permitted to serve as legal counsel. Many acquitted themselves admirably only to be replaced by the next available man.

Wisely, Ginsburg looked at the long game. She realized many laws that discriminated against women or laws meant to protect them could also discriminate against men. Some examples at the time included Social Security Insurance benefits for minor children of a working parent who died– surviving husbands could not secure these benefits for their children, but widows could. This meant men could not afford to stay home or cut back their work hours to assume the role of caregiver for their children. It also deprived women of the right to have their contributions to social security used in the same way as a man’s. Also, in Florida, widowers did not qualify for homestead exemptions put in place for widows. These restrictions assumed basic facts that men were always the main wage earner and they relied on actuarial tables indicating women typically outlive their husbands. Ginsburg used these same tables to point out that since there would be fewer men eligible for these exemptions, it would not place an unfair burden on society if they were granted to widowers. Her arguments were brilliant because they opened the door to gender equity and equality under the law.

She was able to equate gender equity with the 14th Amendment which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Gradually Ginsburg working with the help of the ACLU was able to focus on issues promoting gender equality that benefited women specifically. Many feminists criticized Ginsburg for moving slowly and carefully, but she realized she was laying the foundation for generations of women and men to live more equally. Ginsburg was nominated by President Carter for a seat on the DC circuit appeals court in 1980. In 1981 when President Reagan was considering nominating a woman for a Supreme Court vacancy, Ginsburg knew she was qualified, but realized Reagan was far too conservative to nominate her. She rejoiced when Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1993 President Bill Clinton nominated, Ginsburg to become the second woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg had a long and distinguished career fighting for the underdog and working to establish gender equity. Though she disagreed with many of her SCOTUS colleagues, they always remained cordial.

In addition to being an inspiring biography, Kanefield’s book is a treasure trove of information about how our Supreme Court works and she explains the arguments of several Supreme Court cases. I learned so much. She also explains the terms used by the courts in easy-to-understand language. I highly recommend this book and I’ll be searching for other biographies on Justice Ginsburg.

Other works by Teri Kanefield:

The Making of America Series:

Alexander Hamilton

Andrew Jackson

Abraham Lincoln

Susan B. Anthony

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Thurgood Marshall

Nonfiction:

The Girl from the Tar Paper School

The Extraordinary Suzy Wright

Guilty?

Novels:

Turn on the Light so I Can Hear

Lawyers Never Lie

Fiction for Young Readers

Rivka’s Way

Knights of the Square Table (Series)

Pretty Maids in a Row

Other Stories for Young Readers

Photo with book jacket taken from author’s website with no intention of copyright infringement:

https://terikanefield.com/nonfiction/free-to-be-ruth-bader-ginsburg/