Twentieth Century Club Report

Submitted by Lana Sue Jones
The Twentieth Century Club met Monday, March 13, at the home of our hostess Ruth Woody with Sharyl Henry co-hostess. The minutes and treasurer report were given.
Old business was a concern if next year’s Program Book would be ready in May.
New business was to select a theme for next year. It was decided to do Toys/Games and the story behind them.
Next, officers for next year were selected and others pending. The May meeting will be at the Museum and the entertainment committee will take care of finding a cater.
The opinion was on the Missouri legislature passing School Choice. Would the choice be based on sports and other activities rather than academics? Would the schools take everyone who wants to attend?
Entertainment was sharing what games we play on the computer or phone.
Sherry Wiseman gave the program on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Supreme Court Justice. She started college at Cornell University with financial help from her mother who had passed away. She started college as a teacher but changed to government.
She met her husband in college. He and Ruth decided to change colleges to Harvard Law School so they could take classes together. Harvard had only nine women out of 500 students. Ruth felt she had to perform well so she would not let women down. There were no women bathrooms in the testing center.
Her husband became ill and was unable to attend class, so she would go over the lectures with him and type up his work besides doing her own. Both graduated but there were no jobs for women. She had three strikes against her: she was a woman, she was a mother, and she was Jewish. A judge was persuaded to hire her.
In 1977 there was only one female Appeals Court Judge. In 1998 president Jimmy Carter confirmed her as an Appeals Court Judge and in 1993 president Bill Clinton nominated her for the Supreme Court. With her on the court, they added a woman’s bathroom in the building since there were two women on the bench.
She died in 2020 from cancer and was the first woman to lie in state in the Capital Rotunda. She founded the Woman’s Rights Division of the ACLU and had a role in 34 Supreme Court cases. Serving 27 years on the Supreme Court, she argued six cases winning five of them.
She did not like different rules for men and women and her cases she took changed rules for men and women in the work force.