A LOOSE "NETWORK" AMONG THE THEN FEW FEMALE ATTORNEYS AROUND THE COUNTRY
Among NOW's founders were several lawyers who were seriously developing litigation strategies tor sex discrimination cases. Marguerite Rawait, one of the original thirty founders of NOW and a highly respected government lawyer, had been active in professional legal organizations and developed over the years a loose "network" among the then few female attorneys around the country. Some, like Sylvia Roberts, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, heard about the founding of NOW and joined immediately. At that time, any attorney who joined NOW was quickly recruited to serve on its Legal Committee.
STARTING WITH SEX DISCRIMATION CASES
Rawait monitored the then dozen or so pending sex discrimination cases. One after another failed in the lower courts. Even with the passage of Title VII, the equal employment section of the Civil Rights Act, women were being denied jobs under state "protective" labor laws. In 1967, Lorena Weeks, a low paid telephone operator, lost her law suit challenging the "male only jobs" in the Southern Bell Telephone Company. A similar case was being litigated on behalf of blue collar factory workers employed with Colgate Palmolive. Roberts was recruited by Rawait to appeal the Weeks case to the full Fifth Circuit. ·
MOMENTUM
The theory behind this litigation strategy in the late sixties was that if just one case could succeed in striking down protective labor laws, a momentum would build to remove other state provisions banning women from currently "Male Only" jobs. At the time, by law, most jobs were sex segregated. Men's jobs always paid more money, provided better benefits and offered higher seniority than women's jobs at the bottom of the ladder.
THE STRATEGY WAS WORKING
Roberts took the case without charging fees and won. By the mid-1970's state protective labor laws were found unconstitutional. The strategy was working. Through their experiences on the Weeks case both Roberts and Rawait knew that more was needed than a loose network of female lawyers. Existing civil rights organizations were not interested in broadening their focus to include sex discrimination cases. Further, the U.S. Department of Justice repeatedly refused to handle women's rights cases, although Title VII expressly included provisions which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.
