Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves legacy as champion of women’s equality

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, she left behind not just decades of laws that empower women, but a historical role model of what women can become.

Ginsburg, born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 15, 1933, was only the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But she was a champion for women’s rights long before she ever reached the highest court in the land.

In 1971, she was pivotal in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and advocated for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, though efforts to ratify it ultimately were unsuccessful.