Happy Birthday, Justice Ginsburg!

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the oldest sitting Supreme Court Justice and all-around badass feminist icon, turns 82 today.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg is the second woman justice in U.S. history. Her positions on wage parity, same-sex marriage, and women's rights (When the Supreme Court decided to allow private businesses to refuse certain forms of birth control coverage to their employees, Justice Ginsburg wrote a scathing, 35-PAGE dissent.) have earned her the nickname "The Notorious R.B.G.," thanks to a Tumblr of the same name dedicated to her. The blog posts everything cool about the Justice’s life, including the pop culture reverence of the Supreme Court veteran. If you don’t know, now you know.

In response to the question of whether she has considered stepping down, Justice Ginsburg has said: "As long as I can do the job full steam. I think I'll recognize when the time comes that I can't any longer. But now I can." In other words, this bossy gal has no intention of hanging up her robes. The verdict is in: Ya been Gins-burned!

We honor this remarkable woman's 21 years on the Supreme Court and 82 years of general badassery with just a few notable quotes:

huffingtonpost.com

“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent.”

makers.com

“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well being, and her dignity.”

abcnews.com

“[W]hen I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the supreme court]? And I say ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

nydailynews.com

“You can’t have it all, all at once. Who—man or woman—has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time things were rough.”

newsweek.com

“I – try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.”

theblaze.com

“Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”

---

2015 State of the Union

On Tuesday night, President Obama delivered his 2015 State of the Union address. The State of the Union is an annual address given to a joint session of the Congress, including Supreme Court Justices (the ones who decide to show up) and almost all of the members of the president’s cabinet (minus the “designated survivor”). It contains a report on the condition of the country and outlines the president’s legislative agenda for that year. Every major news outlet and political website has been fact-checking and analyzing the President’s address, so I’ll leave sifting through the 6,000 plus word speech to them. The part of the address that really stood out to me was the President's remarks on the pay gap between men and women.

“That’s why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It’s 2015. It’s time.”

Did you know that women make up nearly half of the workforce but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns? And according to the National Organization for Women, the gap is even wider for women of color. In comparison to a white, non-Hispanic man’s dollar, African American women earn only 64 cents and Latinas just 55 cents. Unacceptable! Bossy gals know they deserve to make the exact same amount, if not more, than men do for the same work. Which brings me to an important rule: Bossy gals negotiate their pay.

I’m always surprised at how many smart and accomplished women around me have failed to negotiate their pay when accepting a job offer. A job offer is just that, an offer. A bossy gal knows that everything is negotiable. She does her research by diligently scouring websites such as GlassDoor and PayScale, knows her market value, and pushes for what she knows she deserves. And once she’s negotiated her salary, a bossy gal negotiates other benefits. These could include, an earlier annual review, flex-scheduling and telecommuting, professional development courses, a better title, transportation reimbursement, guaranteed severance package, and/or additional vacation time.

Bossy gals do their homework, negotiate like a boss, never take no for an answer, and know they damn well don’t deserve 77 cents, 64 cents, and especially not 55 cents for every dollar a man earns.

---