I was reading a follow up opinion column in today's Lincoln Journal Star by Clarence Page, about the wage discrimination law that was not passed by the Senate. Page mentioned someone and something that I had not thought of before , but I believe relates to this class. He discusses Ruth Bader Ginsburg 's dissenting opinion to the original decision to set the time clock at 18 months. She wanted Congress to go back and revisit the original civil rights act and it's intent, actually I think, who it is intended to help, in this case the employee, not the employer.
But what struck me, as I have read before, now that Sandra Day O'Connor is gone from the court, is that Ginsburg is an island by herself many times. As the only woman on the court do you see her as a token. She gets to speak her mind, but with the shift from left to right recently, is that all she is able to do. Is her opinion among the men's opinion enough to open any eyes to the plight and standing of women in today's world when it comes to legal decision that can affect a whole nation.
It takes so long for a case to reach the supreme court and then for them to decide to hear it, how does having only one woman on the court change from when there were two, or does it?? It just struck me that she asks Congress to address this issue, and her plea falls on deaf ears in our Senate.
2 comments:
Wow, that is a good example of tokenism. I think with only one woman on the court it will make her job a lot tougher. Now Ginsburg hows noone else that will back her on gendered issues. Only time will tell how it will turn out.
I think Justice Scalia said it best when he said "The next Supreme Court Justice will be a Hispanic woman." What does this mean? That many Supreme Court Justices are chosen specficall because they are tokens for some reason. And, while Ginsburg's tokenism perhaps helped to get her on the Court, I think it hinders her ability to express her viewpoint within the Court proceedings. Especially since Ginsburg often broaches the underrepresented issues (i.e. women and minority issues).
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