Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The late Supreme Court Associate Justice was the 41st recipient of the Elizabeth Blackwell Award.
During her confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate in 1993, the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
In honor of the transformative steps she took over the course of her remarkable life to affect such real, enduring change, Hobart and William Smith Colleges posthumously recognized Ginsburg with the Elizabeth Blackwell Award on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021.
Presented on the 200th birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive the Doctor of Medicine degree, the award celebrates Ginsburg’s extraordinary achievements and public service, including authorship of landmark decisions impacting women’s rights and gender discrimination.
At the Cornell Club in New York City, Hobart and William Smith President Joyce P. Jacobsen and Board Chair Craig R. Stine ’81, P’17 presented the award in person to Ginsburg’s daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia Law School. Ginsburg’s son, James Steven Ginsburg, the founder and president of Cedille Records, joined remotely from Chicago.
Before reflecting on her mother’s work as an advocate, Jane Ginsburg noted: “We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of tributes to our mother, and we have not been able to participate in the acceptance of all of them, but this one was very special…not only for the remarkable graduate that it commemorates, and for the extremely distinguished prior recipients...but also because of a very deep family connection to Hobart College [through] my mother’s beloved...cousin Richard Eugene Bader, Hobart Class of 1954.”
The reasoning and principles behind Justice Ginsburg’s decisions and dissents “inspired younger generations” and turned her “into the notorious icon she became in later years,” said her son James Ginsburg. “That in turn gave her a platform for sharing her message of shared responsibility between the sexes, so that no one has to be held back by the old stereotypes that she battled as an advocate.”
BLACKWELL RECIPIENTS
May 16, 2021
Librarian of Congress Carla HaydenFebruary 3, 2021
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader GinsburgJanuary 22, 2015
Dr. Janet L. YellenNovember 10, 2013
The Most Reverend Doctor Katharine Jefferts SchoriOctober 27, 2011
Eunice Kennedy Shriver-
April 23, 2009
Rabbi Sally J. Priesand -
April 24, 2008
Dr. Wangari Maathai Sc.D.'94, P '94, P '96 -
April 27, 2007
Dr. Priscilla A. Schaffer '64, Sc.D. '94 -
September 7, 2004
Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris September 9, 2003
Loretta C. FordSeptember 4, 2001
Madeleine K. AlbrightMay 15, 1998
Billie Jean KingFebruary 10, 1996
Wilma MankillerSeptember 23, 1993
Barbara JordanSeptember 27, 1991
Margaret Chase SmithFebruary 22, 1991
Dr. Antonia C. NovelloFebruary 19, 1988
Barbara Aronstein BlackOctober 9, 1985
Cicely SaundersMarch 8, 1985
Sandra Day O’ConnorFebruary 11, 1984
Hannah Holborn GrayFebruary 26, 1982
Agnes George de MilleFebruary 15, 1980
Mary Douglas LeakeySeptember 30, 1977
Mary S. CalderoneOctober 3, 1975
Antonia BricoJanurary 23, 1974
Frances Keller HardingMay 28, 1973
Judith Graham PoolJune 8, 1972
Marian AndersonApril 10, 1972
Mary LaskerJune 13, 1971
Mina ReesJune 14, 1970
Helen Brooke TaussigJune 15, 1969
Georgiana SibleyJune 16, 1968
Constance Baker MotleySeptember 8, 1967
Catharine MacfarlaneJuly 10, 1966
Fe del MundoJune 13, 1965
Annette LeMeitour-KaplunJune 14, 1964
Margaret MeadJune 9, 1963
Marty MannJune 10, 1962
Frances PerkinsJune 18,1961
Leona BaumgartnerJune 12, 1960
Miki SawadaJune 14, 1959
Elisabeth Luce MooreSeptember 27, 1958
Gwendolyn Grant Mellon