It takes courage to effect real change in the world. PAM aligns with a brave new future, by exploring rare metal. With rare mettle. And by adopting the best from those who lead change.
RUTH GINSBERG – for her acute sense of justice.
“Women’s rights are an essential part of the overall human rights agenda.” These are the famous words of Ruth Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice of the USA and co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. So famous that we now take them for granted.
When Ruth attended Harvard Law School in 1956, she arrived without a civil rights agenda. But as 1 of only 9 women, she was asked by the dean why she was taking a man’s seat. Then, after making law review at both Harvard in 1957, and Columbia Law School in 1959, she was recommended for a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. He said he wasn’t ready to hire a woman.
Ginsburg began to handle sex discrimination complaints referred by the American Civil Liberties Union. Under her leadership, in 1973, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project was born. By 1974, the Project had participated in more than 300 gender discrimination cases. And from 1973 to 1976, Ginsberg argued 6 cases before the Supreme Court. She won 5.
Rather than asking the Court to end all gender discrimination at once, Ruth took careful aim at specific discriminatory statutes, building on each victory. She chose plaintiffs carefully, even picking male ones to show that gender discrimination was harmful to both sexes.
Throughout her distinguished career, Ginsburg remained a pioneer for gender equality. And without her razor-sharp sense of what’s right, many of the great strides in Women’s Rights would yet to be taken.
Written for Pan Asia Metals by Josh Bryer
