Washington, D.C., September 19, 2020: Wreaths outside the Supreme Court after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Photo credit: Eli Wilson / Shutterstock.com.

By Jane “Cricket” Doyle
US Liaison to the WILPF International Board Americas Representative

October 2020

On behalf of everyone in WILPF US, I write to honor Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and to express our feelings of grief and loss at her death. In her fearless and inspiring efforts on behalf of equity, equality, and the rights of women she epitomized the values and aspirations common to many of us in WILPF. We thank her for her courage and her leadership. 

For me, Justice Bader Ginsburg is a lodestar. Hearing and reading of all she accomplished sometimes intimidates me. Perhaps, as individuals, none of us believes we can ever rise to her heights. Yet as an organization, as a group of strong, committed WILPF women, we have supported goals like hers. 

We’ll continue to carry on and expand what she strived for. We honor her memory as work in our programs for the rights of women internationally, for peace, for economic and social justice, for protection of the Earth, and for a better future for all. 

The current US chief executive shows a profound lack of respect by nominating a new Supreme Court justice only hours after the funeral of Justice Bader Ginsburg. His stance, and for so many Senators to support his position, only reminds us how rare it is that persons in positions of national leadership maintain the human and ethical values she so clearly demonstrated.