I've seen lots of posts and memes and articles that are saying the same thing: stop it with the despair. Stop it with the "we're so screwed." Stop it with being hopeless. Do what RBG did and roll up our sleeves andwork to change things.
So logical and so true. But I know many of us still find it overwhelming. For me, the dose of reality is that I am not her. I don't have a law degree. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't have been first in my class at an illustrious school like Columbia. One of the hardest, bitterest pills in my life is that I am not all that special or brilliant. Smarter than average maybe, but certainly not smarter than the average person in the sciences or academia. And I definitely lack that especially important quality, one that many claim is an innate trait that taught or learned: grit. I could never even figure out how to work harder and smarter when I ran into a wall.
When job interviewers ask that "What personal strength or talent makes you unique and better suited for this job than the other applicants?" I have no idea.
I was never told I couldn't have a position because I was a woman (thanks to Ginsberg's work). But I was told over and over that while my degree was nice, and I was clearly smart and hardworking, so were the other 100 or so people applying for the same positions, so they were sorry, but someone else had simply been a better match for their lab or department or whatnot.
What puts me in awe of Ginsberg is that she was so good at what she did, so brilliant, so unique, and when she discovered that being top of your class wasn't enough to land a woman a plumb job at a top firm, or even to be paid as well as her male colleagues in academia, she went to work using her skills to argue that women's rights are human rights and the law should reflect this. She managed to convince judges of this fact in a time when judges were male, older, and mostly very traditional.
So what, can I, an adjunct biology prof about ten years from retirement age, do to further the cause of social justice, to help fix the broken political system in our country? I give money to political causes and charities. I vote. I occasionally attend marches.
But how can I be of more use with my skill set? I'm no lawyer. I'm not even much of a biology teacher, since can't convince my conservative friends and family members that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, or that wearing a mask does reduce the spread of Covid, or convince my religious students that evolution is real.
I want to be more like her, to do things that change the world, but I don't even know how to start.
- - - Updated - - -
I've seen lots of posts and memes and articles that are saying the same thing: stop it with the despair. Stop it with the "we're so screwed." Stop it with being hopeless. Do what RBG did and roll up our sleeves andwork to change things.
So logical and so true. But I know many of us still find it overwhelming. For me, the dose of reality is that I am not her. I don't have a law degree. And if I did, I certainly wouldn't have been first in my class at an illustrious school like Columbia. One of the hardest, bitterest pills in my life is that I am not all that special or brilliant. Smarter than average maybe, but certainly not smarter than the average person in the sciences or academia. And I definitely lack that especially important quality, one that many claim is an innate trait that taught or learned: grit. I could never even figure out how to work harder and smarter when I ran into a wall.
When job interviewers ask that "What personal strength or talent makes you unique and better suited for this job than the other applicants?" I have no idea.
I was never told I couldn't have a position because I was a woman (thanks to Ginsberg's work). But I was told over and over that while my degree was nice, and I was clearly smart and hardworking, so were the other 100 or so people applying for the same positions, so they were sorry, but someone else had simply been a better match for their lab or department or whatnot.
What puts me in awe of Ginsberg is that she was so good at what she did, so brilliant, so unique, and when she discovered that being top of your class wasn't enough to land a woman a plumb job at a top firm, or even to be paid as well as her male colleagues in academia, she went to work using her skills to argue that women's rights are human rights and the law should reflect this. She managed to convince judges of this fact in a time when judges were male, older, and mostly very traditional.
So what, can I, an adjunct biology prof about ten years from retirement age, do to further the cause of social justice, to help fix the broken political system in our country? I give money to political causes and charities. I vote. I occasionally attend marches.
But how can I be of more use with my skill set? I'm no lawyer. I'm not even much of a biology teacher, since can't convince my conservative friends and family members that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, or that wearing a mask does reduce the spread of Covid, or convince my religious students that evolution is real.
I want to be more like her, to do things that change the world, but I don't even know how to start.