I Dissent: What RBG Taught Me About My Feminist Identity

As I cracked open my newest picture book of the month from PJ Library in 2016 at eight years old, I discovered a word I had never seen before: advocacy. The book was titled I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark. I read it faster than I had read any book, entranced by the story. I learned of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s history as a Jewish, feminist activist and how she impacted our world. Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She became my favorite “character”, as I hadn’t yet realized she was actually real. At eight years old, I wasn’t aware of the real-world impact people like her had. Now, almost a decade later, Ruth is my favorite person to have ever walked this earth. 

Born in 1933, Ginsburg was forced to deal with the forms of prejudice she faced as a young Jewish woman while antisemitism became more and more prominent in the United States, due to the rise of Nazi Germany. Throughout her life, Ginsburg had a love for reading that led her to discover inspiring women like Amelia Earhart. After attending high school, Ginsburg attended Cornell University, where she eventually met her husband, Martin Ginsburg. Once they both had graduated, Martin was diagnosed with cancer, and Ginsburg copied his law school notes. In doing so, she was able to learn more about civil practices, as her love of reading compelled her to learn more about his studies. She graduated from Columbia Law School and later became the first tenured female professor at Columbia University. She co-founded the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 

In 1971, the ACLU went up against the Supreme Court in the case of Reed v. Reed. Reed v. Reed was a case focused on allowing women to be estate holders, after a woman was given partial holding of a person’s estate instead of it going entirely to a man. In this case, the Reed family suffered the loss of their son, Skip. Since Skip passed away with no will, Sally Reed, his mother, speculated whether the death was truly a suicide or if her ex-husband, Cecil Reed, had killed him. Sally had been told she wouldn’t win. Idaho law at the time stated that “males must be preferred to females” in the case of holding one’s estate, yet she still fought for justice. Once Sally won against Cecil, she asked the Supreme Court to consider that, constitutionally, there would be no gender-based discrimination in such cases. The ACLU assisted in this, becoming the primary decision maker in the ruling once it was put on paper. Shortly after the Supreme Court hearing, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became principal author of the briefing. She went on to serve the US Court of Appeals in the Columbia District, as appointed by President Jimmy Carter, and later, in 1993, was appointed to the Supreme Court, as invited by President Bill Clinton. Ruth served the court for 27 years, up until her death in 2020. 

As Ginsburg served, she became an advocate for subjects that focused on discrimination across various factions of society. One specific issue that Ginsburg fought for was the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The act enabled people to be able to get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work without losing their jobs, so they could take care of their families. Ginsburg stated that it was not just a woman’s job to have a “caregiving” role in the home, but that it was a role for both men and women alike. This meant that as the act was passed, men could also leave work to take care of family members, without risking their jobs.

Fast forward to 2025, Ginsburg is still my favorite Jewish woman (other than my mother) and activist. She showed the world what it’s like to use their voices and how much power their voices actually have. When I met other teens in August 2025 on my trip to Boston for the Rising Voices Fellowship, I was pleased to discover that she influenced some other Fellows as well. We bonded over her power as a Jewish woman who wasn’t afraid to tell it like it is (and the PJ Library book, of course). 

When I mention Ginsburg to people who aren’t Jews or women, they typically don’t know who Ruth is. Now, there’s an exception for the men in my family, who will never not hear me advocating for anything and everything RBG. But even then, I get asked, “Who is that?” and I respond, “My favorite person ever! You don’t know who that is?” They respond with a weird look on their face, and say, “No…” and go about their day. It’s upsetting to know that my generation of women is not aware of some of the people who won them the rights they have today. They might be more likely to recognize Susan B. Anthony or Rosa Parks, because of what we learn in school. I want my generation to know more than just what we learn in school. I want them to know of other people who had an impact on the world, just like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.                                                                      

Ruth Bader Ginsburg inspired me because we had the same interests: reading, being curious, and giving our opinions. Now that I’m older, I try not to just fight and advocate for the same things as her, but to try and look at things through a lens of understanding how others are impacted. If more people looked at Ginsburg’s work not just as a Supreme Court Justice, but as a Jew, woman, mother, and advocate, who most likely dealt with the same things they have, they might also ask themselves how their choices make a difference in someone else's life. 

Feminists can learn from Ginsburg. Feminism isn’t about women being “above” men. It’s not just about being “equal.” It’s about having respect for everyone, especially women, in all settings. The feminist movement is everlasting. It’s the fight for people's rights everywhere, one step at a time. To me, Ruth is the embodiment of the movement. She took everything she wanted slowly, because she knew that if she pushed, she’d be rejected. The beauty of it all is that her tactic works. One step at a time is all it takes to reach your goal. Like Ginsburg said, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made," and that isn’t achievable if we work for our goals hurriedly.