How did RBG become a ‘Supreme’ rock star? Read Rebecca Gibian’s charming and insightful book. It’s all there, secrets and all, told in delightful, accessible style.”
—Marvin Kalb, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Enemy of the People
“You might think, given all of the attention that Justice Ginsburg has received in recent years, that there is little more that can be said about her life and career. But Gibian has a fresh perspective on matters, and extracts a number of practical and useful lessons from those well-known facts in a way that both illuminates RBG’s achievements and can serve as a model for others seeking to emulate her success.”
—David Post, two-time former clerk for RBG
“A self-help book [that] distills the experiences and inspiration of the Supreme Court justice into a series of life lessons...Good advice from a life well lived.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"If you yearn to achieve success like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this is your book. . . A road map for those who aspire to become notorious."
—Booklist
The RBG Way: The Secrets of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Success
Narrated by Jo Anna Perrin
Rebecca GibianUnabridged — 4 hours, 35 minutes
The RBG Way: The Secrets of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Success
Narrated by Jo Anna Perrin
Rebecca GibianUnabridged — 4 hours, 35 minutes
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Overview
Editorial Reviews
2019-09-15
A self-help book distills the experiences and inspiration of the Supreme Court justice into a series of life lessons.
As journalist Gibian acknowledges, there is no shortage of information about Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. 1933), whose rise to the Supreme Court and accomplishments within it have been well-documented. So, why this chatty little volume? "This book," writes the author, "explores the idea that there are lessons we can all take away from RBG's life and apply to our own lives to maybe become a little more successful in our relationships and careers and efforts to create change." Unfortunately for readers, the "secrets of success" invoked by the subtitle don't offer much in the way of revelation. "Ginsburg is proof that working hard and turning in your best work actually does pay off," writes Gibian in the first of nine chapters, which are divided into three sections "because in full cheesiness, there are three branches of government and the Supreme Court is made up of nine justices." We learn that Ginsburg overcame childhood hardships and considerable gender discrimination to become "a rock star litigator" and a feminist "badass." When life presented challenges, she persevered. The author also emphasizes the importance of having a supportive partner or a network of support, because "we all need to have people there to remind us to sleep, shower, and eat" and that "while anger sometimes has a place in this world, it is worth trying to persuade someone to join your line of thought through cold hard facts and a strong argument." Ginsburg's career has certainly demonstrated that persuasive reasoning works better than lashing out angrily. In summary, Gibian concludes, "if you want to be like the Notorious RBG, you must follow the path that she laid out: roll up your sleeves, do the work (and do it well) to create change through incremental steps."
Good advice from a life well lived but nothing you didn't already know.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940177879642 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dreamscape Media |
| Publication date: | 01/02/2014 |
| Series: | Women In Power |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
Introduction
IT IS 1959, AND TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD Ruth Bader Ginsburg is having trouble getting a job. She’s already attended Harvard Law School, where she was one of only nine women seated among more than five hundred men. But then her husband, Marty, got a job offer in New York City, so Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School, where she became the first woman to be on two major law reviews: the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review. Now, having graduated from Columbia tied for first in her class, she was looking for a job at a law firm or as a clerk to a judge or justice.
None of her accomplishments seemed to matter to the men in charge of the legal world. She was not given an offer at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, despite a successful clerkship the summer before. They already hired an African American woman, which fulfilled their commitment to diversity. Ginsburg applied to a dozen other firms, resulting in only two second interviews and no job offers.
Judge Learned Hand of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit also denied Ginsburg a job, even though they shared an interest in process theory. So did Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who wouldn’t even interview Ginsburg for a clerkship position.
And there’s no question about it: potential employers rejected her due to her gender. Despite graduating at the top of her class, being on two law reviews, and having strong recommendations—including one from a professor (and later dean) at Harvard Law School, Albert Martin Sacks—Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a Jewish woman and a mother to a young toddler, which were three strikes against her. She may have accomplished a lot, on top of seeing her husband through his first bout of cancer, but she just couldn’t get a job.
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