The year 2020 has been one for the ages. Every­one has faced chal­lenges as the year has ush­ered in changes — both good and bad — in near­ly every aspect of our lives. We’re adapt­ing to new nor­mals while hold­ing on to old tra­di­tions, all while look­ing for ways to make this world a lit­tle bet­ter and a bit more equal for every­one in it. 

In my life­time, there have been few who have cham­pi­oned the fight for equal­i­ty — true equal­i­ty for both women and men — the way Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg (RBG) had. And so, when news of her pass­ing came dur­ing this already trou­bling year, it was just one more chal­lenge to endure. 

This past week dur­ing ASUG Best Prac­tices: SAP for Indus­tries, ASUG Women Con­nect held a vir­tu­al pan­el to dis­cuss the top­ic of lead­ing through a cri­sis. ​“As we all know, there has been no short­age of cri­sis in 2020 — whether it’s COVID-19, nation­al upheaval about social jus­tice issues, or fires and hur­ri­canes sweep­ing through states from coast to coast. We are all going through it,” said ASUG mod­er­a­tor Kel­ly Dowl­ing. ​“And there has nev­er been a more impor­tant time to lead and to do so with agency.” 

Dowl­ing spoke to Robyn Tweedy, VP and CIO of Nebras­ka Pub­lic Pow­er Dis­trict, Kristin Lamp­ka, account exec­u­tive for SAP EMEA at Intel, and Jack­ie Grun­wald, CIO of Advan­six. The four had a pow­er­ful con­ver­sa­tion about equal­i­ty in the work­place and what role each of us plays in advo­cat­ing for it. 

Liv­ing and Lead­ing with Agency, Plus Shared Interest 

RBG once asked a crowd at Amherst Col­lege, ​“What’s the dif­fer­ence between a book­keep­er in New York’s gar­ment dis­trict and a supreme court jus­tice?” She answered, ​“The dif­fer­ence is one generation.” 

Born in 1933 in Brook­lyn, New York, RBG per­sist­ed through chal­lenges almost every step of her life and career to become the sec­ond woman appoint­ed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although she is most noto­ri­ous for her dis­sent­ing opin­ions (some would say dis­sent is patri­ot­ic), her work cham­pi­oning equal rights for women and men alike is what set her apart. Start­ing with her time as an attor­ney for the ACLU in the 1970s argu­ing sex dis­crim­i­na­tion cas­es in front of the Supreme Court (one of which was a land­mark case on behalf of a man), all the way through her time decid­ing cas­es as one of the nine jus­tices on the U.S. Supreme Court, she made major strides in the fight for equal­i­ty and opened doors for both next-gen­er­a­tion girls and boys.

Dowl­ing not­ed that it seems a bit iron­ic that we’re cel­e­brat­ing the work RBG has done in help­ing women’s rights in the work­place dur­ing a time now where this pan­dem­ic has led to more women either los­ing their jobs or step­ping away from the work­place to ful­fill the role of pri­ma­ry care­givers at home. Grun­wald agreed, cit­ing a quote from RBG: ​“Women will only have true equal­i­ty when men share with them the respon­si­bil­i­ty of bring­ing up the next generation.” 

The work we do needs to be done with shared inter­est because every­one will ben­e­fit from the out­come. ​“There aren’t any easy answers in terms of address­ing what is hap­pen­ing because of this pan­dem­ic,” Grun­wald added, ​“but what we need is to be flex­i­ble and to work togeth­er to find solutions.” 

Keep­ing the Con­ver­sa­tion Going Can Lead to Endur­ing Change 

The pan­elists offered dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives as they dis­cussed effec­tive lead­er­ship, espe­cial­ly dur­ing try­ing times. ​“The mod­el I’ve always lived by is to lead from where you are,” Lamp­ka said. ​“Whether you sit in an indi­vid­ual con­trib­u­tor role, or if you’re just start­ing out, or if you’re at the top of the orga­ni­za­tion — there is always some­thing for you to contribute.” 

Some would say RBG led her life sim­i­lar­ly. The vic­to­ries she helped win in women’s rights didn’t always hap­pen from inside the Supreme Court. And she cer­tain­ly didn’t do it fight­ing along­side only those who agreed with her. In 2015, she told a crowd of young women, ​“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead oth­ers to join you.” It is so crit­i­cal to be vocal about inequal­i­ties, but it is also impor­tant to do it in a way that oth­ers can actu­al­ly hear what you are saying. 

Dur­ing the pan­el, Dowl­ing men­tioned some­thing she and I had dis­cussed about a dis­con­nect between what young girls learned at the din­ner table 20 years ago (that they can do any­thing they set their minds to) ver­sus the con­ver­sa­tions their par­ents had in the work­place with col­leagues (they weren’t hav­ing con­ver­sa­tions at all). ​“I have three daugh­ters,” Tweedy said. ​“And when we sat at the din­ner table, we not only demon­strat­ed to them how to be suc­cess­ful, but we talked to them about not giv­ing up and not los­ing their voice. We told them to be con­sis­tent in who they are and nev­er stop dri­ving for­ward.” She added, ​“The way we keep this mov­ing for­ward, espe­cial­ly as women lead­ers, is to lis­ten to all the voic­es that are out there.” 

The Baton Has Been Passed: Let’s Keep Moving 

More than 10 years ago, RBG said, ​“Women belong in all the places deci­sions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the excep­tion.” As late as last year, she said, ​“We have made huge strides, but we have not reached nir­vana.” Whether or not we will ever reach nir­vana isn’t the goal, but rather that we get clos­er to it with each stride we make. 

It doesn’t mat­ter if you are rul­ing from the high­est court in the U.S. or if you are typ­ing away on a key­board in your makeshift home office, your voice is nec­es­sary. It is what young girls and boys hear when they are mak­ing deci­sions about their lives and set­ting goals to be part of a greater soci­ety. It is also what your col­leagues hear when they are mak­ing deci­sions about hir­ing and pro­mot­ing with­in their organizations. 

A few months ago, my col­league and I were nam­ing women we wished would make guest appear­ances for an ASUG Women Con­nect event: Jus­tice Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg made the top five list. As we all move through the changes we are still learn­ing to adapt to, we must also be mind­ful that we have some con­trol over how it leads to the next lap of this race. ​“Real change, endur­ing change, hap­pens one step at a time,” RBG once said. Let’s keep tak­ing those steps, together. 

Rest in pow­er Jus­tice Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg (March 15, 1933 – Sept. 18, 2020)

To learn more about Women Con­nect, and its future events, please join our LinkedIn group and reach out to us at WomenConnect@​asug.​com.