 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
..............................................................................................................................................................
February 20, 1997Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Receives Sophia Smith AwardRuth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, has been chosen as the first recipient of the Sophia Smith Award, established in 1996 to honor the founder and benefactor of Smith College on the bicentennial of her birth. The award recognizes an individual who, by virtue of intelligence, energy, vision and courage, has made a significant and lasting contribution to the education of women. Smith President Ruth Simmons announced the choice of Ginsburg as the award recipient at the college's Rally Day convocation yesterday, calling her "the modern embodiment of Sophia Smith's vision of women's contribution to the public good." Ginsburg, who will come to the Smith campus to accept the award in the fall of 1997, has been a leading voice in shaping a constitutional understanding of gender equity. "Her commentaries on the issues surrounding gender discrimination illuminate the way stereotyping can operate to deprive women or men of equal treatment in many aspects of work and education," commented Jill Ker Conway, president emerita of Smith and one of those who reviewed nominees for the award. Throughout the 1970s, as the founder and director of the Equal Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, "she fashioned arguments for women's equality under the equal protection principle and perhaps more than any other individual helped end arbitrary sex-based classifications in law," observes Susan C. Bourque, dean for academic development at Smith and chair of the Sophia Smith Award committee. "She is considered by some to be the legal architect of the women's movement in much the same way that Thurgood Marshall charted the constitutional route to end racial discrimination," adds Bourque. Ginsburg's work as a lawyer, legal activist and judge are acknowledged as having broadened educational access and equity for women. Commented Dennis Thompson, Smith trustee, professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and another of the award judges: "As a lawyer, activist and now one of our most distinguished jurists, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made signal contributions to the cause of equal opportunity for women in our society. By her personal example--her moral commitment and her intellectual integrity--she is inspiring this generation and the next to work for justice for both women and men." A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Law School, Ginsburg received an honorary degree from Smith College in 1994. The award will be given every three years. Its creation was a major feature of a year-long bicentennial celebration commemorating Sophia Smith's birth, which has included the planting at her Hatfield, Mass., gravesite in August a newly hybridized rose bearing her name, as well as a symposium in September that featured discussions of women's education, a crew regatta and a huge birthday cake. The others serving as judges for the Sophia Smith Award were Mary Maples Dunn, president emerita of Smith, and Barbara Pierce Bush, Gloria Steinem and Yolanda King--all three of whom are Smith alumnae. |
..............................................................................................................................................................