Goldman Sachs Talks

Linda Hirshman, “Sisters in Law”: Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were the first and second women to join the US Supreme Court. At a Talks at GS session, Linda Hirshman, Supreme Court lawyer and author of Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, discusses the Justices’ united front to fight for legal equality for women.

On the characteristics O’Connor and Ginsburg shared: “Their similarities are more interesting because of their obvious differences. O’Connor is from Arizona. Ginsburg is from Brooklyn. Ginsburg is a Democrat. O’Connor is a Republican. What’s interesting to me is how they’re so similar in character, so stunningly disciplined. They have a magical thing that they share – they never believed that they were inferior. They believed they were entitled to rule.”