How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in United States history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle. Feminists, caring men among them, had sought just that for generations. Until the late 1960s, however, society was not prepared to heed their plea.

What enabled me to take part in the effort to free our daughters and sons to achieve whatever their talents equipped them to accomplish, with no artificial barriers blocking their way? First, a mother who, by her example, made reading a delight and counseled me constantly to “be independent,” able to fend for myself, whatever fortune might have in store for me. Second, teachers who influenced or encouraged me in my growing-up years.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 to 2020, was the author, with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, of the book “My Own Words,” from which this essay, published in the New York Times on October 1, 2016, is adapted.