When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was asked how the court has changed since she took the bench 26 years ago, she instead focused on how it hasn’t.

“The court is the most collegial place I’ve ever worked. Collegiality is very important in our workplace because we couldn’t do the job that the Constitution assigns to us unless we worked well together,” Ginsburg said on Monday to a packed auditorium in the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.

The crowd was so large it spilled into an overflow room, event volunteers said. Ginsburg’s talk was moderated by University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Dean Katherine Baicker.

As part of the event, the 86-year-old justice was also awarded with the 2019 Harris Dean’s Award, which is given to a leader whose work sets an example for the next generation of policy leaders and scholars.

Ginsburg said one way the court has changed is the increase in the number of women who work alongside her.

Until Ginsburg was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in August 1993, former justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the first and only woman on the court. She was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

When Ginsburg joined O’Connor, she was often confused for her when she asked a question simply because she was a woman.

“It’s not that way any longer,” Ginsburg said, referring to colleague Justices Sonia M. Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

“People who have observed arguments at the court will have noticed that my ‘sisters in law’ are not shrinking violets. They participate actively in the colloquy that goes on in oral argument,” Ginsburg said.

Monday’s speech was one of several public appearances Ginsburg made since details emerged of her recent cancer treatment.

Ginsburg spoke fondly of the late justice Antonin G. Scalia, whom she considered a close friend. While the two did not often agree in court, she said he always kept her laughing.

Baicker inquired about Ginsburg’s rise as a cultural phenomenon known as the “Notorious R.B.G.,” to which Ginsburg said has been a little overwhelming at times. During the interview, Baicker pulled out a Ginsburg bobblehead and admitted she was wearing socks with her likeness.

Ginsburg said both she and the late rapper “The Notorious B.I.G.” shared Brooklyn roots.

With a law career that began in 1959, Ginsburg has witnessed a considerable amount of change. She said that’s why she is “optimistic” for the country’s future.

“It’s very hard to do anything as a loner, but if you get together with like-minded people, you can create a force for change. And if you look at things over the long haul, we have come a long way from how it once was,” she said.

One year after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, Ginsburg reflected on her nomination process and how much things changed since then. She said, at the time, she only had three “negative” votes against her.

“I don’t know what it will take, but we really should get back to the way it was, when people were examining the qualifications of someone to be a judge, rather than trying to guess how they would vote on contentious cases,” she said.