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Ruth Bader Ginsburg Receives First Sophia Smith Award
 
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Photos by Jim Gipe
Click on the images shown to view a larger version.
 

More than 2,300 people attended the ceremony on Friday, September 12, at which Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg received the first Sophia Smith Award.

The award, which was established by the trustees of Smith College on the occasion of the bicentennial of the birth of the college's founder, honors an individual who, "by virtue of intelligence, energy, vision and courage, has made a significant and lasting contribution to the education of women."

Speakers at the ceremony, along with Ginsburg, included Herma Hill Kay, dean of the University of California Berkeley, and Wendy Webster Williams, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.

On Saturday, September 13, Ginsburg attended a roundtable in her honor, "In Pursuit of Justice: Women's Equality and the Public Good." Speakers at that event included Smith alumnae Gloria Steinem '56, Rep. Jane Harman '66 (D-CA), Agnes Bundy Scanlan '79, Stephanie Kulp Seymour '62 and Catharine MacKinnon '69, along with NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

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Ruth and Ruth
Smith President Ruth J. Simmons, left, and Justice Ginsburg were in front row seats for the Sept. 13th well-attended roundtable discussion in Sage Hall.
 
Medal
Before a packed audience in John M. Greene Hall, Kate Belcher Webster '46, chair of the Smith board of trustees, confers on a smiling Ruth Bader Ginsburg the medal representing the Sophia Smith Award.
 
Ginsburg at podium
Before she received her Sophia Smith Award, Justice Ginsburg met with about 100 students in the Alumnae House for conversation and questions.
 
Ginsburg
Harman
Gloria panel
Gloria Steinem '56, a roundtable participant, author and feminist organizer, makes a point while Stephanie Kulp Seymour '62, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, listens.
 
Roundtable
Roundtable members wait for an audience member to finish posing a question to them. They are, from left to right, Congresswoman Jane Lakes Harman '66; law professor Catharine MacKinnon '69; corporate officer Agnes Bundy Scanlan '79; Seymour; Steinem; NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg; and Dennis Thompson, Harvard professor and member of Smith board of trustees.
 
Handshake
Afterwards, Justice Ginsburg greeted students with a firm handshake and friendly words.

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