U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death last month unleashed an outpouring of grief and remembrance. Her life and career demonstrated how much impact one person can have when she is focused, determined, and intent on change.

Ginsburg was a feminist, yes, but one who evolved over decades. In the 1970s, as a lawyer, diminutive in size and steely in intellect, facing nine male justices who could not imagine gender equality, she chipped away at the status quo.

In a series of carefully selected cases she argued, envisioning a final shape — a world of equality — the sitting male justices could not.

"Keep your eye on the ball of equality and slowly kick it down the field" was her strategy, wrote Ginsburg's biographer, Linda Hirshman.

Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, now an NBC News legal analyst and University of Michigan law professor, says: "She talked about her own life and career as being like a sweater. One stitch at time."

Now, her empty seat on the court, destined to be filled by conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett, represents a direct threat to that legacy.

In Michigan political circles, there is concern that everything from access to health care, abortion, and women's and minority rights protected by the 14th amendment could unravel like a sweater — not stitch by stitch but with a few well-directed tugs from an emboldened conservative high court willing to part ways with precedent.

Lori Carpentier, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Michigan, views Barrett's appointment "as terrible news" in terms of access to abortion, in a state where recent polls show a majority of voters, including self-identified Catholics, want to preserve that right.

"If Roe goes down" she says, "we'll be in a world of hurt."

But much as we can be fearful of gains lost, and clocks turning back, history suggests another progression. Time does not march backward generally, and in Michigan, the last 20 years have seen a sea change in the position of women to influence and wield political power.

The world that Justice Ginsburg entered after graduating first in her class at Columbia University Law School — incredulity from dozens of law firms that a woman might want a career, a seat at the table — is long gone.

Those opportunities she helped secure are not easily dislodged. Even Barrett — a woman of ambition and keen intelligence, now ascending to the nation's highest court — would not, could not, eradicate these gains.

For "seasoned women," as U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell describes those of us who came of age when discrimination was rife and abortion illegal, memories of past discrimination will remain keen.

"We cannot take for granted the progress we've made. It may be more fragile than we realize and young women need to understand that," Dingell says.

There are emerging signs that they do understand, that young people and minorities are energized by a combination of political setbacks — especially the Donald Trump presidency — and opportunity.

The 2016 presidential election included the most diverse electorate in U.S. history, in part because of the participation of young voters, unmarried women and racial and ethnic voters. And the 2018 elections witnessed a collective roar from women voters.

In recent elections, female legislators and judges have won decisive, and in many cases, unexpected victories. Most of Michigan's highest officials, those elected statewide, are now women, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and even the current chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Bridget Mary McCormack. Five of the 14 members of Michigan's Congressional Delegation are women, and that number may rise again in 2020.

When U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, captured a gerrymandered Republican district in 2018, she emphasized issues that crossed partisan lines. Access to health care for all, she says, "is a pretty bipartisan value at this point."

Even abortion, has become a majority view in her district, where people may not openly advocate reproductive choice but, privately, want that option available.

Preserving health care with protections for people with pre-existing conditions, is particularly important to women voters, Slotkin says.

Pollsters attest to a widening gender gap, in which women favor Democratic candidates, especially Joe Biden over Trump, so strongly that Trump begged at a recent rally: "Suburban women, will you please like me?"

In this election cycle, Michigan's male officeholders are going to extraordinary efforts to demonstrate their empathy for women: From U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, who shared a heartbreaking story of his then-wife's late term abortion, to U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, who sent out a campaign email in solidarity, male candidates are reaching out to women and their direct concerns.

The gender gap, of women leaning Democratic, is at an all-time high.

A conservative Supreme Court may well create challenges and obstacles to a history of increasing rights for women, African Americans and other minorities.

But setbacks can also invigorate participation and innovative thinking, spurring a new generation of politically confident, ambitious women to run for political office, prepared to do battle.

Or as Ginsburg has said: "So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune."

— Laura Berman is a metro Detroit freelance writer focused on political and social issues.

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Laura Berman: After RBG's death, a turning point for women