Ginsburg recounted the story in a roughly 90-minute discussion with Totenberg that touched on the 84-year-old justice’s experiences with sexual misconduct and her reaction to the #MeToo movement, as well as her career as a women’s rights advocate and her future on the high court. She was in Utah for the premiere of “RBG,” a new documentary about her life that was co-produced by CNN.
Ginsburg didn’t let the incident with the professor go: “I went to his office and I said, ‘How dare you? How dare you do this?’ And that was the end of that.”
As a protest, she added, she deliberately made two mistakes on the exam.
And that was just the beginning of her career fighting for women’s rights.
Ginsburg‘s work
- She co-founded the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, a pioneering law journal out of Rutgers School of Law, where she taught.
- Ginsburg also co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project.
- In the mid-1970s, she argued a half-dozen gender discrimination cases before the high court, winning all but one.
- She became a Supreme Court justice in 1993.
Ginsburg’s thoughts on #MeToo
When Totenberg asked Ginsburg for her thoughts on the #MeToo movement, the justice didn’t miss a beat.
As more and more women have publicly accused high-profile men of harassment and assault, some have expressed concern about a potential backlash that could undermine the movement. Ginsburg said she’s not afraid.
“Let’s see where it goes. So far, it’s been great,” she said. “When I see women appearing every place in numbers I’m less worried about backlash than I might have been 20 years ago.”
