To Ruth Bader Ginsburg...
from Sophia Smith
- By Ann E. Shanahan '59
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- Ruth 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 the 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.
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- President Ruth Simmons announced the choice of Ginsburg as the award
recipient at the Rally Day convocation, calling her "the modern embodiment
of Sophia Smith's vision of women's contribution to the public good."
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- Ginsburg, who will come to the Smith campus to accept the award this
fall, 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,"
noted Jill Conway, president emerita of Smith and one of those who reviewed
nominations for the award.
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- Throughout the 1970s, as the founder and director of the Equal Rights
Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, Ginsburg "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.
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- "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 is acknowledged
for 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 significant 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."
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- In a comment following the Rally Day ceremony, Carolyn Dineen King
'59, a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Fifth Circuit and a recipient
of a 1997 Smith College Medal, made a connection between Ginsburg's achievements
and the objectives of Smith College. "Justice Ginsburg's professional
and personal efforts have been directed to creating an environment in which
women can truly realize their human potential. In that respect, Justice
Ginsburg and Smith College share an important common mission. The college's
selection of Justice Ginsburg as the recipient of the first Sophia Smith
Award is a splendid recognition of this common commitment."
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- A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Law School,
Ginsburg received an honorary degree from Smith in 1994. When she comes
to campus September 1213, Ginsburg will receive a medal designed by
Elliot Offner, A.M. Mellon Professor of Humanities and Art. The medal displays
the symbol of the Sophia Smith Award, the owl, companion in Greek mythology
of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The owl is considered to be a particularly
appropriate symbol because Smith's founder's given name, Sophia, is derived
from the Greek word for wisdom.
- The award will be given every three years. Its creation was a major
feature of a yearlong bicentennial celebration, which has included the
hybridization of a new rose named for Sophia Smith, which was planted last
August at her grave site in Hatfield on the 200th anniversary of her birth,
and a symposium in September that included discussions of women's education
as well as a crew regatta and a huge birthday cake.
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- Also 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.
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