On September 18, Ruth Bad Ginsberg passed away at the age of 87. People miss Ginsberg not because she is one of the three female justices among the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, but because she is "a fighter who is tireless and resolute in defending justice." More importantly, Ginsberg has been crying and fighting for equality and equality between men and women all his life, with outstanding results.
Today, equality between men and women is a self-explanatory basic right, but equal pay for equal work for men and women, women can choose their favorite professions and occupations like men, women have the right to vote, etc., in Ginsberg’s youth, it was just an ideal. Ginsberg and all other people who have worked tirelessly for gender equality, after decades of struggle, changed the mainstream concept of society and enabled women to have the same rights and achievements as men in many fields.
Of course, there are many biological differences between men and women, so Ginsberg's pursuit of equality between men and women is not equality in the absolute sense, but equality in politics, law, personality, and social participation roles. Ginsberg knew very well that in order to achieve equality between men and women, one must first persuade people with facts and evidence, and then laws can be formed to guarantee equality between men and women. However, in Ginsberg’s era, the weight of evidence for culture is more important than that of life and science, and the scientific evidence is not too much or obvious. This may be because Ginsberg did not have too much when he was fighting for equality between men and women. One of the reasons for choosing evidence from natural science.
When Ginsberg began to argue for women’s rights, he first borrowed traditional Western culture, that is, a social culture with Christianity as the core, and even a certain kind of submission to traditional culture, but it also showed Ginsberg’s wisdom. . In the 1940s, Ginsberg and her husband Martin David Ginsberg studied together at Harvard Law School. At the time, the law school had only 9 girls. The dean of the law school held a dinner for 9 girls. The dean asked 9 female students: Why do you study law? Why do you occupy a position that should have been given to boys? Unsurprisingly, most of the girls were wronged or even angry, but the answer was either lack of power or left and right. Ginsberg’s answer is: I entered Harvard Law School to better understand my husband’s work so that I can become a more considerate wife in the future. These words admired everyone present and showed Ginsberg's wisdom. In essence, Ginsberg’s answer reflects the perception that women are subordinate to men in Western culture. Therefore, everyone agrees that Ginsberg's answer is the standard answer.
Obviously, Ginsberg did not argue at the time why men and women should be equal. After graduation, Ginsberg devoted herself to social and legal work, slowly exercising and growing up. She gradually understood that to convince people that men and women should be equal is to use a lot of facts in life to prove: men can do things women can also Do it and do it well; vice versa.
In 1973, Ginsberg took over the "Frontiero v. Charlieson" case and helped Air Force Second Lieutenant Sharon Frontiero in a lawsuit against equal pay for equal work. As a female military officer, Frontillo did not enjoy the same benefits and subsidies in housing and medical care as his male colleagues. Ginsberg proved with facts that the work done by Frontiero is the same as that of male military officers and deserves the same subsidies. In the end, Frontillo won the case. Nevertheless, this lawsuit did not change the law in this area.
Regarding gender equality, Ginsberg believes that when men share the responsibility of nurturing the next generation, women gain true equality. This is reflected in her 1975 representing "Westfield v. Wiberg" lawsuit against men for equal pay for equal work. Westfield's wife tragically passed away on the day of giving birth. Westfield wants to be both a father and a mother, raising children alone, but he does not receive all kinds of subsidies for raising children from single-parent families. This is because the government determined that only single mothers can receive childcare subsidies, but single fathers cannot. Ginsberg realized that this is the most convincing fact and evidence from a relative perspective. Sexism is not only against women, but also against men.
Ginsberg stated that Westfield is as competent as a mother for childcare, so he deserves a childcare subsidy. This is a case that entered the Supreme Court, that is, a case to be heard by the justices. This lawsuit was won and the law was changed in a landmark way. The five justices at the time passed unanimously, allowing the legislature to amend the childcare subsidy law.
However, Ginsberg rarely cited evidence from the natural sciences to prove that men and women can do the same job. As early as 1952, American anthropologist Ashley Montague pointed out that although there are differences between men and women, women are the same as men in many ways, and in some places they are better than men. "From a biological point of view, in general, women are better than men. Women are better at coping with conditions that make people physically exhausted-hunger, cold, fatigue, shock, and disease. Except for muscles, men are not as well developed. In addition, women’s physical fitness is better than that of men. Compared with men, women are more stamina and live longer.” However, at the time, both Americans and people in other countries did not agree with scientific evidence.
Today, science has not only given more evidence of equality between men and women, but has gradually been recognized by mainstream society. Catherine Dulac, a molecular biologist at Harvard University, and others have proved that the brains of men and women are the same, and there is no difference. Women are born with tenderness and compassion for children, and are good at caring for and raising children, but men also have this ability, but the nerve channels in their brains that are specifically responsible for raising children are not connected. One of such channels is the neuron expressing galanin (Gal) in the preoptic medial area (MPOA) of the brain, which constitutes the nerve channel of Gal+MPOA. With this channel, men will raise their children with love and patience like women. For this reason, Dulac won the Life Science Breakthrough Prize in the 2020 Scientific Breakthrough Prize, with a prize of 3 million US dollars, which is three times the prestigious Nobel Prize.
Although Dulac's conclusions were obtained from experiments on mice, humans and mice have the same brain tissue and nerve channels, so Dulac believes that the brains of men and women are also the same. In order for men to be as good at raising children as women, it is necessary to open the corresponding nerve channels in the brain, the way to open it is acquired learning behavior. This also echoes Ginsberg’s proposal from the perspective of law and sociology that gender equality can only be achieved when men share the responsibility of nurturing the next generation.
Although many people have done a lot of work for gender equality like Ginsberg, making gender equality a common sense today, there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality. Only three of the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are women, which shows that at this point. Statistics from UNESCO show that less than 30% of scientists in the world today are women. In the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), there are even fewer female scientists. From 1970 to 2020, the proportion of women publishing papers in index journals of mathematics and theoretical physics stagnated and remained at about 10%. In 1970, the percentage of female authors appearing in index important journals was less than 10%. In 2020, the proportion of women publishing papers in astronomy, astrophysics and chemistry journals is 20%, but still less than 10% in mathematics and theoretical physics.
Both the United States and the United Nations organizations and scientific researchers agree that female scientists are trained, and they are no worse than men in terms of intelligence. The key is to further open the nerve channels and genes related to IQ in their brains. This needs to be cultivated from an early age. Starting from kindergarten, teachers and parents need to avoid gender stereotypes and subconscious gender prejudices in their interactions with female students and children. In teaching and non-teaching places, encourage women to participate in STEM activities and teach the concept of gender equality between male and female students. In this way, more progress can be made in equality between men and women, the same intelligence and talents of both sexes can be fully utilized, and more spiritual and material wealth can be created for the society.
