Ginsburg, Cape Woman Broke Barriers At Harvard Law

CHATHAM, MA — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used her position to fight gender discrimination and break the glass ceiling in the U.S. judicial system. Ginsburg, 87, died Friday at her home in Washington from complications with metastatic pancreas cancer.

But in her early years at Harvard Law School, Ginsburg was one of only a handful of women with larger than life aspirations in a male-dominated field. One of those women was Virginia Davis Nordin, of Chatham, a friend who Ginsburg remembered fondly.

In a July 2020 interview with Slate, Ginsburg reflected on her nine female classmates at Harvard and said Nordin was the only one in the class she stayed in touch with long after transferring to Columbia Law School in 1959.

"I stayed in touch with Jinnie Nordin for many years," Ginsburg told Slate. "In fact, the summer after my second year, we had found an apartment across the street from the place where [Columbia] Law School is now, but we were going to live with Marty’s (Ginsburg's husband) parents for the summer. So Jinnie was living in our apartment then. She’s the only one in the class that I stayed in touch with."

After those Harvard years, Nordin made a career as an educator, lawyer, women's rights advocate and author. She spent time working across the country in prominent legal roles in San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Ann Arbor, Michigan, before moving into teaching at the University of Michigan Law School and at the University of Wisconsin.

In 2007, Nordin moved to Chatham following her retirement from the graduate school of education at the University of Kentucky and died on July 15, 2018. Her daughter Kendra Nordin Beato now carries her mother's story and is proud of the relationship Nordin had with Ginsburg.

"For a woman who had become an icon, that so many people look up to and respect from so many walks of life and backgrounds, it's just special to know my mom knew her, and she (Ginsburg) knew her, and they respected and were fond of each other," Nordin Beato said.

When Ginsburg and Nordin were at Harvard Law School together in 1956, they were part of just the sixth class of women admitted. When asked about the impact of growing up with a mother who relentlessly pursued her goals in a male-dominated field, Nordin Beato said that was the norm she always knew.

"Having a mom like I did, makes it normal to see women in high positions of management and the high court of the land," Nordin Beato said "When you grow up with someone that is driven and focused and talks in big ideas and isn't afraid to voice their opinions, it's totally normal to see woman in leadership. I don't know if that's true for every woman who didn’t grow up with a mother in a career with a legal focus."

Nordin Beato said she never had a chance to meet Ginsburg, but after the Slate story came out, she wrote to Ginsburg to thank her for her kind words she said about her mom.

Given the demanding life of a Supreme Court justice, Nordin Beato never expected a reply, but Ginsburg wrote back.

In the letter, Ginsburg wrote, "We were good friends in law school. She cared about the right things and was brave as she can be."

"I was so touched to receive it because she took the time to write it, and it shows she still remembers my mom fondly," Nordin Beato said. "We remember the people when they are doing something extraordinary, and they all started at the same time together. You don't forget people like that."