Document Type
Book Chapter
Book Authors/Editors
Ryan Vacca & Ann Bartow
Publisher
New York University Press
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Justice Ginsburg attained celebrity status in her later years as the voice of feminism from the bench, but her influence on law and gender was not always so venerated. For much of her career, feminist scholarly criticism of her gender jurisprudence was sharp. Critics called the approach “formal equality,” pointing out that it benefited those women most similarly situated to men. The criticism echoed that leveled against her strategy as a litigator representing male plaintiffs. In recent years, Justice Ginsburg’s legacy has been burnished by a fresh interpretation crediting it with a more robust vision of gender equality than previously appreciated. This chapter contends that, while far from radical, the Justice’s gender jurisprudence is a product of a jurist committed to minimizing the role of gender as a site of social and economic oppression.
Although Justice Ginsburg’s impact on gender equality can fill a book on its own, this chapter focuses on identifying and explaining three core themes: an antipathy toward gender stereotypes embedded in the law; a vision of gender equality that transcends formal equality; and a recognition of the centrality of reproductive freedom to women’s equality. Each of these themes has been advanced, albeit imperfectly, by Justice Ginsburg’s career as a litigator and a jurist.
Recommended Citation
Deborah L. Brake,
Gender and the Law: Revisiting the Legacy of a Feminist Icon,
The Jurisprudential Legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
5
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_book-chapters/55
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Judges Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal History Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons