Final answer:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose a career as a lawyer to fight gender-based discrimination because she believed in the power of legal precedents to bring about change.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose a career as a lawyer rather than as a legislator to fight gender-based discrimination because she believed in the power of legal precedents to bring about change. She understood that lawyers had more influence in social change through their arguments in court. One example of this is Ginsburg's work as an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, where she successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court that helped establish legal protections against gender-based discrimination.