One of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s often-told anecdotes about her role as a parent goes like this: When her son James was a student at Dalton School in New York in the 1970s, he was somewhat of a troublemaker, so she would often get calls asking her to come to the school to discuss his behavior.

Teaching at Columbia Law School at the time, Ginsburg once testily informed the school official, “This child has two parents. Please alternate calls.” Her request resulted in fewer calls overall, James later said, because the school was more reluctant to bother a father than a mother.