On The Basis of Sex is the story of Ruth Baden Ginsberg’s journey from Harvard Law School to arguing against gender discrimination at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ruth, portrayed by Felicity Jones, was one of nine women, in a class of 500 entering Harvard in 1956. Sam Waterson, as Erwin Griswald the dean of Harvard Law, fought against the inclusion of women, and when welcoming the new class boosted the importance of being a “Harvard Man” never acknowledging the women in the room.
Later, he hosted a dinner for the woman and asked each of them to share how they justified taking a class spot that would otherwise have gone to a man. Professors declined to call on Ruth during class discussion/lectures. It wasn’t until there was no one else to call upon, that Ruth was heard.
Martin, Ruth’s husband also a Harvard Law student, is tragically diagnosed with testicular cancer. It is then that Ruth attends her classes and Martin’s second year classes, taking notes from classes and lectures giving Martin the ability to continue his studies.
Martin graduates and is offered a job in New York. Ruth must now request from Dean Griswald to finish her Harvard degree at Columbia. This similar request had been approved to male students in the past, but not surprisingly her request is denied, and Ruth continues on to graduated top of her class at Columbia.Unfortunately, Ruth can’t find a firm interested in hiring a woman. It didn’t matter she was top of her class at Harvard and Columbia.With no job prospects, Ruth takes a job as a professor at Rutgers Law teaching The Law and Sex Discrimination. Something she has first hand knowledge of.
Martin, portrayed by Armie Hamner, is a successful tax attorney destined to be his firm’s youngest partner. Ruth, disappointed she had never able to practice law, continues to teach at Rutgers’s. At Martin’s firm Ruth is simply seen as Martin’s wife, jut another of the lawyers wives. Martin comes across a tax law case that he encourages Ruth to explore. The suit involves section 214 of the IRS tax code that does not allow a never married son to deduct the cost of medical care for his very ill mother. The deduction was available to women, divorced men or widows, not to a man who never married. Ruth believed if she could win this case, showing discrimination on the basis of sex against a man, she could use that as a stepping-stone to proving discrimination against women.
Here’s a fun fact, as Ruth’s typist hands her the completed filing she mentions, “there’s a lot of sex in here, maybe we should use another word, maybe gender?” And that’s where gender discrimination came from. We also delve into Ruth’s home life, daughter Jane and son James. Jane has a tough time being Ruth’s daughter. Mom is no pushover and very opinionated as to how Jane should think and act. Times are changing, and Jane is very much a woman of 1970’s. There is a really great scene with Jane and Ruth getting a cab in the pouring rain, Jane gives Ruth an education and she couldn’t be more proud.
Regardless of your political thinking, this is a movie everyone should see. It’s crazy to think what was “the norm” 40 years ago. We were not supposed to question “the natural order”. Erwin Griswald, now Solicitor General of the US pontificates the downfall of the country if gender equality becomes law. Children would come home to empty homes because mom is working and taking men’s jobs, divorce would be rampant it would start a downward spiral for the country.
This is happening in the 1970’s!!!
Felicity Jones does a great job as Ruth, but I was very impressed with Cailee Spaney’s role of Jane Ginsberg. A key phrase thru out this movie is “The weather of the day doesn’t dictate the
climate of the era.” Think about that for a few minutes. The movie’s last few minutes, Felicity morphing into the real Ruth, just fabulous.
Just a side note, the vast majority of people in the theatre was older, and I mean older women. I’m glad these women had the opportunity to pay homage to their peer, unheard of in todays Holllywood.
On the Basis of Sex is rated B plus. If you are a moviegoer, I encourage you to see this movie now. If you’re strictly a Red Boxer the estimated release date is March 2019, but with its healthy box office appeal, don’t be surprised to see that date pushed back.
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