The Notorious RBG: 7 Surprising Facts About Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Young Life And Early Fight For Justice
Long before she became the "Notorious RBG," a pop-culture icon and Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a young woman navigating a deeply discriminatory world. Her early life, filled with academic brilliance and professional setbacks, laid the foundation for her monumental career as the architect of the legal strategy to eradicate gender discrimination in the United States. This article, updated for December 2025, dives into the fresh and often-overlooked details of her formative years, revealing the sheer tenacity required for a woman to succeed in the mid-20th-century legal field.
The story of the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a powerful testament to resilience, showing how personal challenges—from motherhood during law school to blatant job discrimination—fueled her lifelong commitment to justice. Her journey from Brooklyn to the highest court was paved with groundbreaking legal firsts and a quiet, persistent determination that earned her the moniker of a true legal titan.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Biographical Snapshot of Her Formative Years
- Full Name: Joan Ruth Bader
- Born: March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York
- Parents: Celia (Amster) Bader and Nathan Bader
- Spouse: Martin D. Ginsburg (m. 1954; d. 2010)
- Children: Jane Carol Ginsburg and James Steven Ginsburg
- Education:
- Cornell University (B.A., 1954)
- Harvard Law School (1956–1958)
- Columbia Law School (LL.B., 1959)
- Early Career Highlights:
- First woman to be hired with tenure at Columbia Law School (1972).
- Co-founded *The Women's Rights Law Reporter*, the first law journal in the U.S. devoted to gender equality (1970).
- Director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project (1973–1980).
- Argued her first gender-discrimination case before the Supreme Court, *Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue* (1971).
The Young Ruth: Overcoming Gender Barriers in Law School
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's time in law school was not just an academic pursuit; it was a relentless battle against institutional sexism. She entered Harvard Law School in 1956 as one of only nine women in a class of over 500 students. This environment was openly hostile, with the Dean famously inviting the female students to dinner and asking them to justify "why they were taking a man's spot."
Despite this pressure, Ginsburg excelled. She was selected for the prestigious *Harvard Law Review*, demonstrating her exceptional legal intellect. Her commitment was extraordinary; a former law clerk recalled an anecdote that highlighted her work ethic: she would bring a flashlight to the movies so she could work during the previews, refusing to waste a single moment.
1. She Was a Young Mother and Caregiver at Harvard
Unlike her male peers, Ginsburg was juggling the demanding life of a law student with the responsibilities of motherhood and caregiving. She entered Harvard Law School with her husband, Martin Ginsburg, and their young daughter, Jane. When Martin was diagnosed with testicular cancer, Ruth not only attended her own classes but also transcribed his lecture notes and typed his papers to help him complete his degree. This period of intense pressure—caring for a sick husband, raising a child, and competing at the highest level of legal academia—forged the steely resolve that would define her career.
2. She Graduated First in Her Class—But Still Couldn't Get a Job
After transferring to Columbia Law School to follow Martin's career in New York, Ginsburg graduated first in her class in 1959. This achievement is the pinnacle of legal education, yet it did not guarantee her a position. Due to blatant gender and religious discrimination (she was also Jewish), she struggled profoundly to find a job. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter outright rejected her for a clerkship, and other law firms refused to hire her. The doors of the legal elite were closed to her, forcing her to accept a clerkship with a U.S. District Judge in New York—a position she only secured after persistent advocacy from a Columbia professor.
The Genesis of a Gender Equality Strategist
The discrimination Ginsburg faced in her young life was not a deterrent; it was the fuel for her lifelong mission to dismantle legal barriers based on sex. Her early academic and professional work focused heavily on comparative law and the legal status of women, which proved crucial to her later strategy.
3. Her Time in Sweden Was a Legal Awakening
In the early 1960s, Ginsburg worked on the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure. This work led her to Sweden, where she spent time studying the Swedish legal system. Sweden, at the time, was far more advanced in its policies supporting work-life balance and gender equality than the United States. She observed that women made up a significant portion of the law student population and judicial ranks, and she co-authored a book with a Swedish jurist. This exposure to a society with fewer gender-based restrictions profoundly influenced her legal thinking and her subsequent strategy for gender equality.
4. She Co-Founded the First U.S. Law Journal on Gender Equality
In 1970, Ginsburg co-founded *The Women's Rights Law Reporter*. This was a monumental first—the inaugural law journal in the United States entirely dedicated to issues of gender equality. This publication became a vital platform for legal scholars and activists, helping to formalize and professionalize the nascent field of women's rights law. It was an essential step in building the intellectual and legal framework that would eventually lead to sweeping changes in U.S. law.
5. Her First Major Case Was Fought for a Man
Ginsburg's strategy to dismantle gender discrimination was brilliant and counterintuitive. She understood that challenging laws that discriminated only against women might be seen as special pleading. Instead, she chose cases that demonstrated how gender-based laws harmed both men and women, thereby exposing the irrationality of the entire legal structure. Her first gender-discrimination suit argued before the Supreme Court, *Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue* (1971), involved a man, Charles Moritz, who was denied a tax deduction for the care of his dependent mother because he had never been married. Under the law, a woman in his exact position would have been eligible for the deduction. By successfully arguing that the law discriminated against Moritz based on his sex, Ginsburg established a crucial precedent that gender-based classifications were inherently suspect.
The Little-Known RBG: Early Insights and Legacy
6. Her First Public Writing on Prejudice Was at Age 13
Long before her legal career, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was already articulating powerful thoughts on justice and prejudice. At the age of 13, she wrote an article for her school newspaper about the meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, reflecting on the nature of prejudice and its antidote. This early writing demonstrates a precocious awareness of social injustice and a deep commitment to the foundational principles of American democracy, foreshadowing the work she would dedicate her life to.
7. She Was the Architect of the Legal Strategy to Eradicate Gender Discrimination
From 1973 to 1980, as the director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project, Ginsburg meticulously selected and litigated a series of cases—six of which she argued before the Supreme Court—that systematically chipped away at discriminatory laws. Her approach was incremental, strategic, and focused on using the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to establish that sex-based classifications were unconstitutional. This deliberate, long-game strategy, often referred to as her "step-by-step" approach, fundamentally changed the legal status of women in the United States, cementing her legacy as a legal pioneer long before her Supreme Court appointment in 1993.
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