Ruth Bader Ginsburg

RUTH BADER GINSBURG Name Subject Date Ruth Bader Ginsburg established herself as a progressive leader through her work as an educator and activist for human rights. Her biography demonstrates that she dedicated her life to challenging the status quo to stir change and improve other people’s lives. According to Tyler, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has overcome many adversaries in her career and leadership growth to become an influential American focused on transforming the U.S. Constitution and law. The author indicates her commitment to serving the American people throughout her work, from working in the legal industry to becoming a judge. Tyler demonstrates that her work zeroed around accomplishing the calling of the American Constitution’s founders of creating a perfect union. As a result, Ginsburg concentrated on advocating and using her powers as a judge to fight for the rights of all Americans and ensure they enjoy their full rights as outlined in the Constitution. She devoted her life to dismantling societal discrimination and inequalities through activism and dissents during critical court cases. Thus, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s leadership reflects her capability to apply diverse perspectives, theories, and varied competencies to stimulate change and transform the U.S. Leadership Theories and Perspectives Used by Ruth Bader Ginsburg Ginsburg’s commitment to changing the pre-existing ills confirms her display of transformational leadership theory. Transformational leaders prioritize systematic and individual changes, with a primary goal of stirring positive results. Such an approach is consistent with the learnings from this course that emphasize the need for leaders to remain futuristic by consistently promoting change. A review of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life illustrates that she committed herself to being a change agent by persistently seeking opportunities to bring desirable legal and social changes. For instance, Tyler indicates that she challenged gender-related stereotypes in the judiciary system for over forty years by flagging such issues through her dissents. The author highlights the level of commitment in this course through the numerous opinions she wrote against popular rulings, up to 480 and 700 on the Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit. Such a commitment demonstrates her passion for ensuring that people enjoy appropriate changes that enable them to enjoy equal rights irrespective of gender. As a result, this persistence transformed the legal niche and enforcement of constitutional rights, increasing women’s opportunities in the nation. Such leadership has become highly respected in the military sector because of its effect on the service delivery by the officers. Thus, Ginsburg’s demonstration of transformational leadership is applicable in varied sectors. Ginsburg’s goals and achievements indicate that she was also a charismatic leader. According to Lussier and Achua, such individuals can draw followers and influence them toward a particular objective. The author associates this type of leadership with the charismatic leadership model characterized by a leader’s ability to leverage their innate skills to trigger a profound impact on their followers. Lussier and Achua report that Max Weber formulated this theory to describe the leadership of individuals with divine inspiration to lead others to achieve a set goal. Such individuals can conceptualize a transcendent dream or practice that appeals to the masses and challenges them to act due to their belief in the leader’s guidance. For example, Ginsburg drew motivation from the imagination that providing equal rights for all Americans by eradicating gender-based inequalities would translate to improved conditions. Such visualization of the American future reflects the arguments presented by Kouzes and Posner that military leaders should remain forward-looking to bring desirable changes. Charismatic leaders inspire change and revolutionary ideals through the routine interactions between the leaders and followers. As a result, Ginsburg’s achievements confirm her application of charismatic leadership theory. Ginsburg also displayed elements of servant leadership theory due to her ardent belief in serving the oppressed through equal application of the law. Lussier and Achua indicate that this perspective in leadership focuses more on service to the people and prioritization of their urgent needs than directing. The author shows that such leadership arises from a deep recognition of virtues and ethics in society. As a result, individuals such as Ginsburg, who ascribe to this perspective, consider moral influence to be their focus rather than power. In this context, their leadership is follower-centric and advocates for kindness, equality, empathy, and respect for everyone. Lussier and Achua also add that this approach reflects value-based leaders because individuals often demonstrate self-sacrifice to serve other people’s interests. For instance, Judge Ginsburg revealed her desire to serve the American people without any social, economic, or gender-based discrimination by emphasizing that judges should recognize all cases are about real people and require appropriate respect through the process for fair judgments. In this context, she challenges leaders to remain present and attentive to their people’s needs. Prioritizing these values highlights the preparedness of leaders to serve. How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Successfully Uses the Leadership Theories Diverse acts by Ginsburg enabled her to successfully apply the principles of servant leadership as a judge and an activist. For instance, she encouraged her colleague judges to recognize that legal cases are more about real people through her elaborate dissents explaining her position. According to Tyler, Ginsburg demonstrated her determination to serve the oppressed while providing her opinions in the ruling for Lily Ledbetter. She argued that her situation represented a complex issue of wage discrimination based on gender lines. The judge expounded that such individuals remain victims because of their inability to voice their pay discrepancies due to the fear of emerging as troublemakers in male-dominated professions. As a result, she expressed her dissatisfaction and challenged her colleagues on the value of ruling in favor of Lily Ledbetter to end the unfair treatment. Ginsburg’s fight against gender discrimination surfaced in another case involving female employees when she argued the need for the Virginia Military Institute to enroll female officers in United States v. Virginia. Taking this position highlights Ginsburg’s commitment to serving the less privileged members of American society alongside the influential ones. In this context, she successfully demonstrated her awareness of servant...