The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a few words of advice for you.
BY BILL MURPHY JR., WWW.BILLMURPHYJR.COM@BILLMURPHYJ for INC.
photo: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Getty Images
Editor’s note: This piece was first published October 4, 2016. It was updated on September 22, 2020, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was perhaps an unlikely rock star: an 87-year-old U.S. Supreme Court justice who was described as “dour,” “quiet and reserved,” and a “late-blooming feminist” when she was nominated to the court in 1993.
But if you have a daughter, and you love her, and you want her to grow up to be a confident trail-blazer–you could do a lot worse than suggesting Ginsburg as a role model.
Writing in The New York Times in October of 2016, she offered her “advice for living,” in advance of her book, My Own Words.
(Quick note: This article is the latest in my series on how to raise successful kids. It’s all inspired by the fact that I became a father myself in 2015 and decided to read everything I could find. You can download my free e-book, on the subject, How to Raise Successful Kids, with some of the best things I’ve learned.)
Here’s Ginsburg’s best counsel, especially for parents of daughters who want them to mature into confident, fierce, high-achieving women.
1. Foster a love of reading.
No matter what you hope for your child, or what she hopes for herself, there’s no better thing you can impart than a love of reading. It’s truly a passport to explore the world, barely discriminates between rich and poor, and can expand and train her mind. It’s important enough that it’s the first thing Ginsburg mentions in her article, and she credits her mother, who “by her example, made reading a delight.”
Sadly, Ginsburg’s mother battled cervical cancer and died young, reportedly the day before Ruth’s high school graduation ceremony. Ginsburg later called her mother “the bravest and strongest person I have known, who was taken from me much too soon.”
2. Teach them to be independent.
This is truly the second most important thing: ensuring that they learn who they really are and remain true to themselves. Society pulls people in so many different directions, trying to shape us into roles that we might not really want for ourselves. I’m speaking as a man, but it’s easy to see how this is even more challenging for women.
Again, Ginsburg credits her mother for fostering this streak in her. It was her mother, she writes, who “counseled me constantly to ‘be independent,’ able to fend for myself, whatever fortune might have in store for me.”
