By Vanessa Harris
Welcome to the Culture segment of Her Campus at UH! This is where you’ll get up to date information on politics, campus happenings, celebrities, TV, movies, and music news, all in one place! Every week will focus on a different subsection in hopes to bring in discussion and input.
Over the past week, our country lost a pioneer in the fight for equal rights and justice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was a Supreme Court justice from 1993 until her death and will be remembered as a role model for fight for gender equality and women’s rights. As the second women to ever be on the Supreme Court, RBG ended up taking the liberal side of the court and was often alone in her argument against the rest of the justices. A few of her most famous cases include United States v. Virginia, which changed the Virginia Military Institute’s men-only policy and identified it as a violation of the 14th amendment. Ginsburg emphasized that the government must show an “exceedingly persuasive justification” to use a classification based on sex. On the terms of abortion, she clearly states that “…the government has no business making that choice for women”. This was exemplified in the case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (2016) which struck down on Texas abortion policies not having women’s health as their first priority. These are only a few of her countless accomplishments in making this country a fairer place for women and minorities. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer for many equal rights activists to come, and without her women would not have the same rights as we do today.