On the Basis of Sex was published on the 8th of February of 2019 and directed by Mimi Leder. It’s a movie based on a true story, the story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the second woman to reach the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Ruth was in office from the year 1980 to 1993 and she died on September 18 of 2020.
The film starts with the main character, Ruth (Felicity Jones), showing up for her first day of law school at Harvard University. From the very beginning, we can see that there are very few women in her classes, and taking into account that the movie is based on the 50s shouldn't be surprising but still shocked me a little. By the time she started university, she already had a baby and was married to Martin David Ginsburg (Armie Hammer), who was in the second year of law school.
The first plot twist comes when her husband is diagnosed with testicle cancer. As it was early caught, the chances of his survival were the best they could be, low but with a chance. After hearing this horrible news, she decides to help her husband in his classes so that he doesn't get behind. We see how Roth organizes herself so that she can not only attend her classes but his too. She explains to him his subjects in the afternoons and studies her own subjects at night. This was really interesting to me because studying law itself must be hard and tiring, so I couldn't imagine doing double work while taking care of a sick man and a little kid.
Even if she graduates from Harvard University with the best grades, she finds it difficult to find a job. Lawyer buffets don´t want her for being a woman, some thought that women were too emotional for the job, others were afraid of what their wives were going to say... This goes to show that in the 50s, women had to work extra hard in everything not to stand out, but to just be accepted.
After being rejected, she becomes a teacher, and she teaches "Sex Discrimination and the Law" and even if she enjoys it, it's not what she really wants. She wants to be an active lawyer and defend people. Her husband, on the other hand, is an active lawyer and has a very good reputation. This is not something that bothers her, she is happy for her husband but at the same time, she feels like she deserves that position as much as him.
One day, her husband, Martin, brings her a tax law case in which a man called Charles Mortiz, was denied a tax deduction (cash discount) for the nursing care of his mother. The thing is that this man had to hire a nurse for his mother so that she was taken care of while he worked, but the Section 214 of the Internal Revenue Code specifically limited the deduction to "a woman, a widower or divorcée, or a husband whose wife is incapacitated or institutionalized", so Mortiz, as an unmarried man, could not access to said deduction. This draws attention to our main character because this law presents discrimination on the basis of sex that affects men, not women (as usual) so this could be her opportunity to show that these laws are unfair for both sexes.
It was interesting to see how she had to prepare herself for the defense of Mortiz. At the end of the day, she had never been in that position and she had to prepare her speech. But what drew my attention most was the fact that her lawyer friends and husband were advising her on the tone of her voice. She couldn't say certain things because coming from a woman would sound bossy, she had to smile to the judges because if she didn't, she would be seen as a bitter/sharp woman and they were not going to like it. Things like that are things that I wouldn't have thought about, at all.
The last scene, on the court, was really frustrating because you could sense that she was very nervous and because of it, the judges weren’t taking her seriously. But when she finally wins the case, saying such intelligent things, it was a very relieving feeling.
Overall, the film explained really well the difficulties of the main character. I really liked that her daughter grew out to be a feminist like her mother and that she shows her that the mindset of women is changing and that they want to make a change in society.
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