For Women of My Generation, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Fights Were Our Fights

No one is coming to save us, except ourselves. 

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg feels like the death of everything we have fought for over so many years. We are women of a certain age and privilege. We are the women who pored over "Our Bodies, Ourselves" in discovery of our own physical selves. We are the women who formed consciousness-raising groups and urged each other on to be ambitious and powerful. We are the women who devoured Ms. Magazine, hoping to feel less crazy and more affirmed. We are the women who met and marched, organized and mobilized to protect our rights and to determine our own future. We are the women who broke glass ceilings but remain just on the verge of breaking the last one.

Ginsburg’s mother told her to be a lady, but an independent one; that she might find Prince Charming but she should always be able to fend for herself. Femininity became feminism, the ability to enjoy dressing up, but to choose what to wear. To claim the right to be your authentic self and to be able to choose your destiny. Of course, her choices were challenged. Our choices were challenged.