Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the second woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court and her work on gender equality is widely respected.

She graduated with high honours from Cornell University, where she met her husband Martin Ginsburg. Together they decided to pursue careers in law and both entered Harvard Law School where she was one of nine women in its class of 1959. When her husband accepted a job as an associate with a New York City law firm she transferred to Columbia Law School and graduated tied for first in her class.

In 1963 she became the second woman to join the law faculty at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Between 1972 and 1978, having joined the Columbia law faculty, Ginsburg argued six cases before the Court involving sex-role stereotyping and won five. In fact both her critics and admirers agree that her work in the 1970s changed the legal and social landscape, creating unprecedented personal and professional opportunities for women.

In 1980 President Carter appointed Ginsburg to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. In 1993 US President Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court and described her as ‘the Thurgood Marshall of gender equality law’.

Professor Sir David Williams from the Faculty of Law said:

“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a welcome visitor to Cambridge. She will be discussing an issue of the utmost importance in the work of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The lecture will take place tonight, Monday 9 May, at 5.30 pm in LG19 at the Faculty of Law, 10 West Road, Cambridge and everyone is welcome.

For more information contact Miss Sarah Ross by e-mail sr309@cam.ac.uk or telephone 01223 330035.