Joan Ruth Bader was born on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Celia and Nathan Bader. Her father was an immigrant from Ukraine and her mother was a daughter of immigrants from Poland. As a child she went by Kiki, a nickname given to her by her sister Marilyn. When Joan started school, there were multiple girls with the same name, so her mother suggested she go by Ruth instead. Her family belonged to the East Midwood Jewish Center. Ruth did not have a Bat Mitzvah ceremony because of her synagogue’s restrictions on women reading the Torah. This greatly upset Ruth and could be seen as her tipping point into pursuing women’s equality.
The second red scare in the United States began after World War II, in 1947, and lasted until 1957. The red scare was a period inn which the US government persecuted those
they thought were affiliated with communism. Ruth said in the 2018 biopic RBG that it was during that time that she realized she wanted to be a lawyer.
Ruth received her Bachelor of Arts degree at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. At that time, Cornell’s student body was ratioed four men to one woman. At Cornell, Ruth met her future husband, Martin Ginsburg. Martin and Ruth got married after they both graduated from Cornell in 1954. Later in life, friends would describe Martin and Ruth’s relationship as a perfect balance. Martin liked to tell jokes and be social, while Ruth was much more reserved and serious. The couple were both lawyers, and Martin was always supportive of his wife’s career. In 1955, she gave birth to her and Martin’s first child, Jane.
After graduating with an undergraduate degree from Cornell University, Ruth enrolled in Harvard Law School, where she was one of only nine women in the class. Reportedly, the dean, a man, said to her and the other eight women at the dinner, “Why are you here at Harvard Law School, taking the spot of a man?” Martin was diagnosed with cancer shortly after Ruth’s enrollment, which left Ruth to juggle classes, a three-year-old toddler, and caring for her husband. She helped him with classwork, bringing him notes and work he missed. Because Martin was only able to eat late at night, Ruth would help Martin work after he finished eating. He would go to bed at around 2 AM, and after that Ruth would take out books to prepare for the next day’s classes. During this time, Ruth learned that sleep was a luxury. Despite these hardships, Ruth made the Harvard Law Review in her sophomore year.
Martin survived his cancer, graduated from Harvard, and took a job in New York City. Ruth followed him there and wanted to take her third year of Harvard Law classes
at Columbia University. The Harvard dean refused, so she transferred to Columbia. She made the Columbia Law Review, making her the first woman to be on two major law reviews. She graduated from Columbia tied for the top of her class.
Although she was clearly qualified for any law position, many institutions refused to even interview Ruth because she was a woman. She was denied positions at local law firms in New York City and even denied