Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who fought her whole life for women's emancipation, passed away at the age of 87. She will remain a symbol for the United States and beyond.
A superheroine in a robe. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a justice of the United States Supreme Court since 1993, died on 18 September in Washington at the age of 87, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
"Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature," declared John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. "She was a champion for gender equality," added Barack Obama, former president of the United States.
Ginsburg was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, a neighbourhood of New York, to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia. "My mother taught me to be a lady," she used to say. "But to her, being a lady meant being yourself, and completely independent." A mantra her daughter never stopped repeating to herself, managing to gain entry to the prestigious Harvard University to study law — accused of "taking a man's place" — and forging her way through thousands of male lawyers until the doors of the Supreme Court were opened to her, making her the second woman in history to hold that role.
She fought against colleagues who did not believe that sex discrimination existed, pursuing cases that made it possible to take great strides forward on the path towards women's emancipation. Consider that in the 1960s, women could be dismissed for being pregnant, while rape by a spouse was not considered a prosecutable offence. In 1972, Ginsburg founded the Women's Rights Project, a key organisation in the defence of women's rights.
Over time, Ruth Bader Ginsburg — RBG — became a true icon, to the point that her face and her quotes are printed on mugs, T-shirts and merchandise. Her portrait is among the most requested tattoos among law students in Washington, home of the Supreme Court, where thousands of people gathered to leave flowers and notes.
"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed," Ginsburg revealed to her granddaughter before she died. She regarded the current president Donald Trump as "a faker." He could decide to replace her with someone whose views are far more conservative.
The documentary RBG and the film On the Basis of Sex are dedicated to her. Amid protests against racial discrimination, with less than two months to go before the elections, the United States, like the rest of the world, needed someone like her. What matters now is that her message is not lost and remains etched in the hearts of those who loved her, as well as on the skin of the young lawyers she will continue to inspire for generations to come.