The Great Dissenter: Female Faculty and Students Discuss the Legacy of RBG

Mrs.+Eleanor+Clark+and+Mrs.+Julie+Swanbeck

Alice Tan

Mrs. Eleanor Clark and Mrs. Julie Swanbeck

Alice Tan, Lead Reporter

The candles shined brightly outside of the Supreme Court the day after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away. Surrounding the building in Washington, mourners flocked to the sidewalk with flowers, posters, and messages in chalks. A feminist icon, RBG championed women’s rights and liberal causes, encouraging women (including many in the Falmouth Academy community) to follow in her footsteps. In short vignettes, female faculty members and students reflect on RBG’s passing and how her legacy shaped their understanding of being a woman.

Mrs. Amy Galvam:

“I grew up in the Reagan years, when the conversations about what women are capable of were very conservative. I remembered even when I was on the college campus, a lot of women had limited visions and traditional views about their societal roles. I did not. RBG became very personal when I became a mom of two daughters. It was very important for me to show them the possibilities of what women can do. 

RGB claimed in an interview that her work was not new, implying that she was not so special but just in the right place at the right time. I would say there is probably some truth to that from a historic perspective but she humbly deflects what she achieved personally and professionally. Prior to the 1960s, people were fighting for equal citizenship but it was RBG who framed it as a basic human right. She was an inspiration as a trailblazer who made great sacrifices so that we all would benefit. She led by example and called on us all as individuals and a nation to be our best selves.” 

Mrs. Julie Swanbeck, 

“In her legal career, RBG definitely forged a path of greater equality for women. She was very clever in the way that she went about this,  pursuing sexual discrimination cases, often related to men, that would establish a precedent that women benefitted from as well. There’s probably a whole lot that I owe to her that would be hard to identify. 

“At the time when I made the choices to start a family and enter a profession, it was far enough back that RBG was a professor or maybe a circuit court judge. I wasn’t influenced by her. But certainly, she and I were influenced by many women who chose families and careers, including my own mother, who worked full time and raised five children. That was in the late 40s and 50s, an age when it was not really the norm to do both.”

“On a personal level, I love how Ginsburg interacted with other people. When you hear her talk about her husband and children, you realize how she treasured family, and her friendship with Antonin Scalia is such a great example of being able to appreciate someone even if you disagree with them.  She was a great role model for people in so many ways.”

Ruby Gaetani’21

“I’ve wanted to be a lawyer for a really long time, and seeing RBG as a woman, coming into law in a time of great hardship for women, it showed me that it’s really possible as a woman to push past the boundaries, come into a world full of men and still make a great impact. It doesn’t matter if there are people that are opposing you, and it doesn’t really matter if there are people who are saying you can’t do it as long as you have faith in yourself. 

“For a lot of my life, I perceived being a woman as being either feminine or being strong. I see RBG, when I see her in the media, I don’t see her as being particularly masculine. She embodies femininity and power at the same time. She wears those lace collars, which can be seen as a very delicate thing, but she does such powerful things with the position that she has. Wearing that lace to me was sort of a symbol of how you can be delicate and feminine but can still get things done, which is really important to me.”

Ms. Jill Reves:

“My whole life, working through several careers in white, male-dominated fields, I always felt like everything had to be balanced between genders, races, cultures, and so on.  When I heard RBG’s response as to how many women would we need on the Supreme Court to have equality in this country, and she replied, ‘When there are nine,’ it really made me stop and think, She’s right!’ Perhaps the pendulum won’t ever swing that far and seem ‘normal,’ but it sure would be interesting to find out what a fair and equitable place our country could be.”

Ms. Eleanor Clark:

“I have found a number of things inspiring about her life, but certainly her lifelong quest, as I understand it, to eliminate the differing expectations for men and women. I can remember for instance when I was a girl, talking to a family friend, who asked me in that half-serious adult way ‘Oh, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I looked up at him and said: ‘I want to be a reporter.’ 

“Then I remember him snorting, dismissively suggesting, ‘That’s an awfully tough job,’ and I thought – I was only ten – oh, it must be an awfully tough job. But even then I was thinking, oh yeah, what gives you the right to assume that’s not women’s work, or that I couldn’t do it? 

“I wasn’t aware of what RBG was doing at the time I was a kid, but now, in retrospect, I’m so grateful for her tenacity and her cleverness in going about it. Taking on, you know, male clients to make her point, and as I understand it making traditionally female claims. I’m in awe of how she managed to balance everything in her life: to be a loving wife, a mother, and to have a career, to be an intellectual, to be a friend – even a friend of Scalia with such opposing views but she honored his intellect and looked for the shared experiences and shared sense of humor. I just find that inspiring.”

Ms. Liz Klein:

“I probably never thought about what my life would be like without RBG until the past few years, when I got to know more about her. The fact that I didn’t realize that many of my professional successes were possible because of pioneering women like her speaks volumes. When I look back and think about how different things were for women just a few decades ago, I am so grateful for her work, and I am eager to keep fighting the good fight in her name. 

“I admire how she used her intellect, how she never shied from it in a world where women are still sometimes made to feel as if being smart is a disadvantage. When I talk with Rudi, now three and a half years old, I am proactive in breaking the gender barriers that society wants to place him in. He will grow up knowing that women can do anything, and at the same time it is okay for him to love pink (because he does). RBG helped me see the power of those choices.”