Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joins the #MeToo Movement with Story of Her Own Sexual Harassment

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is adding her voice to the #MeToo movement.

During an interview with NPR’s Nina Totenberg at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, Ginsburg revealed that she was sexually harassed as a college student at Cornell when a professor gave her a practice exam that turned out to be identical to the real thing.

“I knew exactly what he wanted in return,” Ginsburg said. “Every woman of my vintage knows what sexual harassment is, although we didn’t have a name for it.”

Ginsburg recalled confronting the professor later in his office, where she told him, “How dare you? How dare you do this?”

Ginsburg, who worked as a women’s rights attorney before being appointed to the nation’s high court, praised the #MeToo movement and said “it’s about time” women feel empowered to come forward with their experiences.

“For so long women were silent, thinking there was nothing you could do about it, but now the law is on the side of women, or men, who encounter harassment and that’s a good thing,” she said.

Ginsburg added that she’s not worried about the criticism the movement has begun to face.

“So far it’s been great,” she said. “When I see women appearing every place in numbers, I’m less worried about a backlash than I might have been 20 years ago.”