Narrator: Imagine it’s the 1970s. A man named Charles Moritz is the sole caregiver for his ailing, 89-year-old mother. He hires a nurse to help while he travels for work, and when tax season arrives, he tries to claim a deduction for the caregiving expenses. He is denied. The reason? The tax code only allowed this deduction for women, or for men who were widowed or divorced. Because Charles Moritz had never been married, the law deemed him incapable of being a caregiver. This seemingly small injustice, buried deep in the tax code, was a single thread in a vast legal tapestry of gender discrimination. The story of how that thread was pulled, and how the entire tapestry began to unravel, is central to the life and work of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In the collection of her speeches and writings, My Own Words, Ginsburg herself provides the blueprint for her revolutionary legal strategy and reveals the personal and philosophical foundations of her lifelong fight for equality.

Narrator: Long before she was a justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was shaped by forces that taught her the importance of independence and the sting of being an outsider. Her most profound influence was her mother, Celia Bader, who instilled in her two seemingly contradictory lessons. The first was to "be a lady," which meant not letting unproductive emotions like anger get in the way. The second, radical for the time, was to "be independent," encouraging her to pursue her potential without limits. This advice became a guiding principle, especially after Celia’s tragic death from cancer just before Ruth’s high school graduation.

Ginsburg’s early life in Brooklyn was also marked by direct encounters with prejudice. As a young Jewish girl during World War II, she saw signs that read "No Dogs or Jews Allowed" and was taunted by other children. These experiences fostered a deep-seated empathy for marginalized groups and a powerful commitment to justice. Even her physical traits became a source of early rebellion. When a teacher tried to force the naturally left-handed Ruth to write with her right hand, she struggled, failed penmanship, and then defiantly vowed to never use her right hand for writing again. It was a small, personal act of dissent that foreshadowed a lifetime of refusing to conform to arbitrary rules. This foundation of independence, resilience, and an acute awareness of injustice created the woman who would later challenge the nation’s highest laws.

Narrator: When Ruth Bader Ginsburg began her legal career, gender discrimination was not just common; it was codified in the law. The prevailing legal standard assumed that laws treating men and women differently were perfectly reasonable. Ginsburg knew that a frontal assault on this system would fail. Instead, she devised a brilliant, incremental strategy to dismantle it piece by piece. As the director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, she didn't search for one big case to overturn everything. She looked for small, strategic cracks in the wall.

A pivotal moment came with the 1971 case Reed v. Reed. An Idaho law stated that when two equally qualified people sought to administer a deceased person's estate, the "male must be preferred to the female." Sally Reed was denied the right to administer her own son’s small estate in favor of her estranged husband. Ginsburg wrote the legal brief, arguing that this preference was arbitrary and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. For the very first time, the Supreme Court agreed, striking down a law for discriminating on the basis of sex. It was a monumental victory.

Ginsburg masterfully chose her plaintiffs, sometimes using men like Charles Moritz to show that gender stereotypes harmed everyone. By demonstrating how laws based on outdated notions of gender roles restricted men’s opportunities as caregivers and women’s opportunities as breadwinners, she methodically educated the all-male Supreme Court. She wasn't just arguing cases; she was teaching the justices to see the world differently, leading them step by step toward a new understanding of equality.

Narrator: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was acutely aware that she did not make her journey alone. Throughout My Own Words, she pays tribute to the "waypavers and pathmarkers" who came before her. She understood that progress is a relay race, with each generation building on the sacrifices of the last. One of the most powerful stories is that of Belva Lockwood, a woman of extraordinary tenacity. In the 1870s, Lockwood was denied admission to law schools because her presence might "distract the male students." After finally earning her degree, she was denied admission to the Supreme Court Bar simply for being a woman.

Instead of accepting defeat, Lockwood spent years lobbying Congress. In 1879, she succeeded, and a law was passed allowing any qualified woman to practice before the Supreme Court. Lockwood became the first to do so. She even ran for president twice, decades before women had the right to vote. Ginsburg saw figures like Lockwood, and later her own colleague Sandra Day O'Connor, as essential predecessors. She knew that her own historic appointment was only possible because of the women who had chipped away at the barriers of discrimination for over a century. This perspective gave her a profound sense of humility and a responsibility to continue their work, ensuring the path would be easier for those who followed her.

Narrator: Once on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg became known for her meticulous approach to judging and her powerful dissenting opinions. She believed that the court’s strength came from collegiality and reasoned debate, not ideological warfare. However, when she found herself in the minority on a crucial issue, she used her dissents not as an expression of anger, but as a strategic tool for change. She famously said a dissent was an "appeal to the intelligence of a future day."

Nowhere was this clearer than in the 2007 case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Lilly Ledbetter had been systematically underpaid for years, but she didn't discover the discrimination until late in her career. The Supreme Court’s majority ruled that she had filed her claim too late, interpreting the law to mean she had to sue within 180 days of the first discriminatory paycheck. In a fiery dissent that she read from the bench, Ginsburg called the majority’s reasoning out of touch with the realities of workplace discrimination. She argued that pay discrimination is often hidden and unfolds over time. She concluded her dissent by explicitly calling on Congress to correct the Court’s error. Her words created a public outcry and a political movement. In 2009, the first bill President Barack Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which did exactly what her dissent had called for. This transformed the role of a dissent from a simple legal disagreement into a powerful call to action for the other branches of government and the American people.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from My Own Words is that profound, lasting social change is rarely the product of a single, explosive moment. Instead, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life demonstrates, it is the result of patient, strategic, and relentless incrementalism. Her career was not about tearing down institutions, but about meticulously persuading them to live up to their own highest ideals, one case, one argument, and one dissent at a time.

Her legacy challenges us to see the law not as a fixed and rigid code, but as a living instrument that can be used to expand the circle of "We the People." The question she leaves behind is not whether the fight for a more perfect union is finished, but who will pick up the baton and continue the patient, essential work of bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice.