My Own Words

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2016

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

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Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Tributes to Waypavers and Pathmarkers”

Part 2, Introduction Summary

The biographers describe Ginsburg’s encounter with the Swedish notion of vägmärken (meaning “waypaver” or “pathmarker”). She recognized that many individuals had established the course of her own pilgrimage as a legal activist. They write, “Even now, as arguably the hardest working Supreme Court Justice, Justice Ginsburg continues to pay tribute to historical figures and colleagues alike” (63).

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “Belva Lockwood”

Ginsburg describes the life and career of Belva Lockwood, the first woman admitted to the Supreme Court Bar and the first to make an oral argument before the court. Belva came to New York in 1866 as a widow with a small child. Through perseverance and diligent effort, she became a teacher and then a lawyer. After persistent attempts, in 1879 she gained admission to the Supreme Court bar. In 1884 and 1888, she ran for President of the United States.

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary: “Women’s Progress at the Bar and on the Bench”

Speaking to the American Sociological Association annual meeting in August 2006, Ginsburg traced the history of American women as attorneys. She noted that Arabella Mansfield in Iowa in 1869 became the first woman to practice law in the US. That same year, St. Louis Law School allowed women to attend. She remarks that, 100 years later, in 1969, the legal profession was still male dominated. A shift began in the 1970s, at the same time that Ginsburg became immersed in legal work for gender equity: “In the law schools, women filled between 3 and 4.5 percent of the seats each academic year from 1947 until 1967. Today women are almost 50 percent of all law students” (72). Ginsburg emphasizes her opinion that women should not only become attorneys but also seek leadership roles. She observes that the US lags behind many other developed nations in the percentage of female members of their highest courts.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “From Benjamin to Brandeis to Breyer: Is There a Jewish Seat on the United States Spring Court?”

Ginsburg devotes this chapter to reflections on the Jewish justices who preceded her. She describes first an attorney named Judah Benjamin, who might have become a US justice, had he not become attached to the Confederacy during the Civil War, eventually ending up as a barrister in England. The first Jewish American to serve as a justice was Louis Brandeis, from 1916 to 1939. Brandeis was highly regarded during his career, and now historically, Ginsburg says of him that “the theme of civic responsibility seems to me Brandeis’s leitmotif, first as a lawyer and later as a judge” (81). Brandeis’s example of excellence carried forward in the careers of the four Jewish justices who followed prior to Ginsburg’s nomination. Ginsburg links her quest for legal equality to a Jewish biblical imperative, “Justice, justice shall thou pursue” (85).

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “Three Brave Jewish Women “

In this brief chapter, Ginsburg quotes three Jewish women who each served as a “waypaver” for her. The first is Emma Lazarus, a cousin of Justice Benjamin Cardozo, known best for penning the poem that adorns the Statue of Liberty welcoming new immigrants to the US. The second is Anne Frank, a young Jewish woman who perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp just before her 16th birthday. In her diary, Frank wrote with great conviction of the need for equality between women and men. The third is Henrietta Szold, who insisted on performing Jewish rites for her all-female family when, according to Jewish custom, only men could say the mourner’s prayer, the Kaddish.

Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: “Sandra Day O’Connor”

Ginsburg uses this chapter to praise her colleague and mentor, Justice O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. The author describes their shared practices of hard work, multiple side interests, and appreciation for fellow justices. While O’Connor’s constitutional views different greatly from Ginsburg’s, like her colleague she maintained civility in expressing her disagreements. Following O’Connor’s retirement from the court, she became a promoter of civic education, in particular “urging the appointment rather than election of judges” (93).

Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Gloria Steinem”

Another feminist pioneer whom Ginsburg praises in this brief chapter is Gloria Steinem, known as the founder of Ms. magazine. The two knew each other for more than 40 years, having first met in 1970 when both expressed interest in the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “Remembering Great Ladies: Supreme Court Wives’ Stories”

Ginsburg concludes the second part of the book with a lecture she gave in 2005 concerning the history of the wives of Supreme Court justices: “‘Behind every great man stands a great woman,’ so the old saying goes. Yet little attention has been paid to the lives of the women who stood behind the justices” (97). Ginsburg notes the difficulty in relating the stories of many of these women because while histories of their husbands are abundant, the women themselves wrote little material. From the founding of the nation until the current day, Ginsburg notes, expectations of the justices’ wives have evolved. Initially, they stayed home while the justices lived in a Washington boardinghouse whenever the court was in session. During the second half of the 19th century, the justices’ families accompanied them to Washington and hosted regular, large gatherings of guests.

Ginsburg tells of a book by Helen “Nellie” Taft, the wife of William Howard Taft, who was both president and chief justice. Helen Taft’s memoir, released again in 2005, is Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era. Another memoir in which Ginsburg expresses interest is that of Malvina Shanklin Harlan, the wife of Justice John Harlan, who wrote a book about her experiences entitled Memories of a Long Life. Ginsburg was so interested in Malvina’s memoir that she tried to find a publisher for it, initially without success, until the Supreme Court Historical Society stepped in to assist.

Part 2 Analysis

During her tenure as a procedural law professor at Rutgers Law School, Ginsburg participated in a project that required her to spend time in Sweden studying the raft of newly enacted domestic laws. During the process, she encountered the concept of the “waypaver” or “pathmarker,” as engendered in the Swedish word vägmärken. A “waypaver,” she grasped, is a person who establishes a new paradigm, a new goal, a new trail. This new perception added light to a practice that Ginsburg had followed since her childhood. As her earliest essays reveal, Ginsburg was quick to give credit to her teachers, her historical models, and her colleagues who imparted important awarenesses and truths to her. When she wrote of the dangers of prejudice in her “One People” essay, she quoted the wisdom of Rabbi Alfred Bettelheim. As a student at Cornell, she attributed her developing writing skill to her professor, novelist Vladimir Nabokov.

Enlightened with the idea of the “waypaver,” Ginsburg began to understand that these pioneers she had studied and encountered had set new pathways for her. Thus, in Part 2, when she writes about these people she admires, she also describes people she desires, in some sense, to emulate. The first person she lauds is Belva Lockwood, a widowed, displaced mother who ended up in New York City and proceeded to acquire a set of credentials beyond any possessed by women in that era. Even after becoming the first woman to argue a case before the US Supreme Court, Belva was not through taking on new challenges. She ran for US president. Belva knew that she could not win but used the notoriety to speak on social justice issues. Ginsburg resembles Belva in her insistence on writing dissenting opinions even though she knows she is often on the losing side of Supreme Court votes. Belva’s issues and spirit resonate with activists today. Likewise, Ginsburg’s opinions and insights will endure.

In addition, Ginsburg warms to trailblazers who share her ethnic heritage. She writes of Jewish men who proceeded her as justices, most considered among the wisest jurists in US history. As she lists their number and expounds on the qualities they brought with them to the court, Ginsburg sets the stage to take her place as the next iteration of a Jewish justice and the first woman. Thus, she answers the question she poses in the title of Part 2, Chapter 3: whether the US Court has a Jewish seat. The answer must be yes, and Ginsburg, following several others, filled it. Not all the male Jewish attorneys she lists were justices, however. She reflects on the life of Judah Benjamin, a flamboyant New Orleans attorney who had the gift of adapting brilliantly to every setting in which he found himself. Benjamin was a “waypaver” for Ginsburg in this regard. Like him, she excelled in every environment—except, as her husband and children attest, in the kitchen.

When Ginsburg turns her attention to Jewish women, she praises not glorious leaders but instead three humble women who were well-spoken and recognized for their achievements. The characteristic Ginsburg admires most in them, as denoted in the title of Chapter 4, is their bravery. The words of talented poet Emma Lazarus welcome scores of new immigrants coming to the US. Anne Frank predicted a day when true equality would exist between women and men. Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold gently demanded the same traditional rites for Jewish women that exist for Jewish men. The spirit of inclusion, universal equality, and equal rights embodied by these women resonated within Ginsburg as well.

The author went on in this chapter to single out her mentor, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Gloria Steinem, a popularizer of the women’s movement from its earliest days, as trailblazers who inspired her. Ginsburg saw in each of them aspects of inner strength that she possessed as well. O’Connor, after retiring from the court, traveled extensively to promote numerous civic causes, though she was especially interested in advocating for the appointment rather than the election of judges. Like O’Connor, Ginsburg favors removing members of the Third Branch (jurists) from all political pressures and appearances. Steinem’s gifts, Ginsburg notes, are the ability to listen and to persuade. Marty, in writing about his wife as a young woman, spoke of her ability to remain silent, thinking about questions asked before responding. Ginsburg’s words change and empower others, such as Marty’s secretary, who typed many of Ginsburg’s writings: She felt empowered to correct her husband when he tried to introduce her as his woman, proudly introducing herself as her own person.

Even more than all these people were “waypavers” for Ginsburg, she was and continues after her death to inspire multitudes, as is evident in her iconic popularity. Some will follow her pathway in law. Many will find her an example for living one’s life. Marty described this common reaction of people to Ginsburg when he told about the moment, shortly after Ginsburg’s failed dissent in the Gore v. Bush suit, when a theater full of people recognized her walking to her seat and burst into applause. Ginsburg is an example of an individual who exemplified honorable and graceful leadership, underscoring the theme of Inheriting and Bequeathing Leadership.