Usually, when I am walking down a cute strip with plenty of shops near my local town, I always ignore those old eclectic movie theaters that usually play weird showings no one has ever heard of. However, most recently I took the opportunity to go see a documentary in one of those little old theaters and became so inspired and interested by what I watched.

If anyone has ever heard of the famous rapper, The Notorious B.I.G, then you may have heard of a similar name yet a completely different legacy. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a female member on the Supreme Court, is just as notorious as B.I.G the rapper.

After seeing this documentary I became highly interested in all of Ginsburg's work and her life. The showing provided her background and explained how she is 85 years old and is still going strong. Here is the rundown on RBG.

A Brooklyn native with strong Jewish roots and a Cornell graduate, she was one of the highest ranked graduating female students. Back then in 1954, it was not too common to see a woman graduating in a class with almost all men. I think we all know how female roles were portrayed over 60 years ago. While also attending Harvard University in 1956, the Dean asked, "how do you justify taking a spot from a qualified man?".

During her years at Cornell, she met her husband Martin and became pregnant with her first child. She followed her husband to his new job in New York City and her own career soon took off. Fast forward to June 14, 1993, Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court after all of her hard fought and achieved cases as a lawyer.

She fought for the rights of both women and men. For example, after watching this documentary two specific cases stuck out to me. One case being Ledbetter V Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. This case discussed employment discrimination as female worker, Lilly Ledbetter received 40% less pay than men during her whole career and she did not even know. Unfortunately, under a certain title of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, if claims of gender or race discrimination were not bought up within 180 days on the job, employees cannot sue. I find this case super intriguing because like Lilly, I also work in a male-dominated industry and believe that if a woman can do the same job as a man, obviously equal pay should be awarded.

If you want to read more about this case, I highly suggest it. I am usually not interested in law or politics but after watching this documentary I can understand why the Supreme Court and Ginsburg are so crucial especially for women in today's society.

Moving on the second case that stood out, it is clear RBG fought hard for women's rights and had strong opinions on equally and even abortion. But as a more moderate person on the Supreme Court back in the day, she also fought for the right of a man to receive social security benefits. Weinberger V Wiesenfeld (1975) was a case where Stephen Wiesenfeld was married to his wife who was a teacher and sadly passed away while giving birth but received great pay and benefits. Stephen, a new stay at home dad yearned for social security benefits in order to provide for his newborn son but was denied. He sued and believed he was unfairly discriminated because of his gender. I found this particular case enticing because Ginsburg fought for all equal rights and not just for women.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a legit icon. Students in other colleges such as Fordham University made merch and blogs all about her. I find it so incredible how even though she is an older woman from a different generation, she relates to so many individuals. She has fought for so many people and overcame gender obstacles and because of that many find her so inspiring.

So if you ever walk past a little dinky theatre, check out some movies because they definitely show something worth watching. Aside from this documentary, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is also a book that is available about her life. By no means do I consider myself a feminist or a complete liberal, if anything I feel moderate but even though my beliefs are not an exact replica of others, Ginsburg made me realize how crucial it is to fight for what you believe in.