Women of Note
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's "brilliance, grace, humor, tact, and unyielding resolve that saw her shatter barriers in the legal world”
Despite graduating at the top of her law school class, Ginsburg struggled to find a job. Title VII had not been enacted, anti-discrimination measures were not yet part of employment law, and firms were reticent to hire women. In law school, she routinely saw sign-up sheets for job interviews that explicitly said “Men only.” “Very few firms were willing to take a chance on a woman and no firm was ready to engage a mother,” said Ginsburg, who landed a judicial clerkship only through the diligent efforts of a professor-mentor. When she joined Rutgers’ law faculty in 1963, the Equal Pay Act had just been passed — but was widely ignored. When notified of her paltry salary, Ginsburg asked how much a man with similar experience was paid. more »
Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Caring for Our Climate and Our Earth; Inside and Outside; NASA's New Spacesuit for Artemis Generation Astronauts
Ferida writes: This is strange autumn. Mother Nature seems confused. The temperature is bouncing up and down, sometimes zooming into the 90s. Our tulip tree, which usually loses all of its leaves by the end of August, still is partially green. The backyard normally is awash in leaves by now but the maple trees are only reluctantly shedding their foliage. If Mother Nature is confused, how are we to understand what is happening around us? We were up in the Alps not long ago and the temperature plus humidity soared to over 105 degrees! It’s hard not to take the concept of climate change seriously when the climate is changing all around us. more »
Jo Freeman: Kavanaugh Redux: "Unfit to Sit"
Jo Freeman writes: Reclaiming the court is not a task for one demonstration, or even a lot of them. There is a process by which federal judges are chosen, based more on convention than law. The right-wing learned long ago how to game the system. It looks for those with conservative views it can groom for appointment to the federal bench and raises them through the system. The Federalist Society in particular identifies and lobbies for conservative judges and justices. Kavanaugh is just one of five current Justices who rose with its support. Until the Left understands the long game, it will do more ranting than winning. more »
Jo Freeman Reviews - The Book of Gutsy Women by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton
In the 1980s and 1990s, when I read women’s history on my own, I realized that there were important and prominent women in every decade, but they disappeared when the history books were written. Women were like sand castles; men were like rocks. The waters of time washed over both and wiped out the women. The Clintons — mother and daughter — are helping to remedy that. By telling the stories of 103 Gutsy women, they want to raise the sand from the beaches and fuse the particles into solid quartz. more »