By Serena Tartaglia
Staff Writer

True and full equality for both sexes, feminism, did not begin and end when white women got the right to vote in 1920.
A feminist hero and societal warrior for all, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, defended such rights before her tenure on the Supreme Court.
As young people in the twenty-first century, we often take for granted the rights people in the twentieth century fought so bravely for us to have.

Reflecting on such privileges when looking back at Ginsburg’s work, proves civil progression did happen through her support:
● A single father’s right to collect the same benefits as his wife as a stay-at-home father
● A woman’s right to serve at the Virginia Military Institute, which had a male-only policy until 1996
● People with intellectual disabilities have a right to affordable housing under the Americans With Disabilities Act
● Americans have a right to sue for injuries caused by pollution

As a lifelong feminist, I am grateful that I got to experience Ginsburg’s influential work.

She not only overcame antisemitism and sexism in her lifetime; but devoted her life so other people could live in a world where those things did not exist.

I am also grateful for filmmakers who shone a spotlight on an American hero twice, with the 2018 documentary “RBG” and with the 2018 film, “On the Basis of Sex,” which highlighted her early life and obstacles she faced as a female law student in the mid-twentieth century.

Ginsburg, even after her death, continues to empower young men and women to overcome adversity and chase their dreams of activism.

Without RBG fighting for equality, Barack Obama may not have won two terms as the first African American president. Hillary Clinton may not have been the first woman to win the nomination for president in a major political party in 2016.

We probably would not have had a record number of women (575) run for House, Senate, or governor in 2018.

The nation was inspired by a petite woman, in a lace collar, with a voice that thundered through the generations. Rest in Power, Ruth.