Ruth Bader Ginsburg - How DO we finish her work?

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Equality isn't about elevating the underdog. It's about ensuring the dignity of all.

It's an emotional, uncertain time for so many of us, and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves me feeling raw and vulnerable. As my mom said to me this morning on the phone, “The death of RBG feels personal.” Since hearing the news last night, I’ve been exchanging texts with friends, about what her legacy and death means for our kids.

I’m using an old public health framework to think about her work of creating equality. It looks something like this. The work starts with me as an individual, moves into my family's values, goes out to my friendships, finds its way into my community, until it reaches the national policy level. And then the policies impact my communities which impact my family which affect me. So the work to create change goes back and forth, back and forth, from individual to policy, from policy to individual. This is a concept that I have been playing a lot with these days when it comes to racism and now, with the death of RBG, I’ve been applying it to gender equality.

Where do we start the chain of change? At the policy level or individual level?

We can learn from countries who have been successful in implementing gender equalizing policies - policies that increase the country’s GDP overall, and result in a more equitable workforce. We’re talking about things like fines for organizations with gender gap wages, paid leave, flexible schedules, and paid childcare. Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland businesses with equitable practices show higher profits, produce better products/services, and have higher rates of employee satisfaction/retention. As usual, many of the Scandinavians seem to do so many things well. (Lessons From The World's Most Gender-Equal Countries, Shelley Zalis, Forbes, 10/30/2018)

A text exchange with some friends this morning, reminded me of all the work that takes place (or doesn’t) within our own families. A rising pile of research from around the globe brings to light the idea that equality in the outside world might just stem from equality in the inside world - I'm talking about the home. Things like men doing their fair share of childcare, housework, social organizing, family emotional labor and these days, everything that goes into online schooling. (Gender Equity Starts in the Home, David Smith and W. Brad Johnson, Harvard Business Review, 05/04/2020)

Of course, as a full-on mom for almost fifteen years, I have to confront my own demons around this (or should I say my family has to). My intention is not to offer a hypocritical beseeching of the way things should be, but an open invitation to discuss your take.  Is change likely from a policy perspective or a personal one, or both? Do you feel like you have the agency to address it from the bottom up, or vice-a-versa? What will you tell your kids about RBG - her legacy and her unfinished work? Given the current political climate, will our kids more likely see her work finished or undone within their lifetime?