On June 4, 2015, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) was re-introduced in Congress with bipartisan support. The bill calls for reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers and is modeled after the Americans with Disabilities
The Women's Legal Defense and Education Fund
Legal Momentum Blog
Welcome to Legal Momentum's Blog.
We write about stories and issues that relate to our mission.
Our Intern Team also posts about issues important to them, offering discussion and insight regarding women's equality and opportunity.
-
-
“Women’s soccer isn’t as fun to watch as men’s soccer.” “Women don’t play as well as men.” “There just isn’t as big an audience for women’s sports.” These are some automatic responses to allegations of gender discrimination in women’s soccer. But these justifications are factually inaccurate. Rather, FIFA and soccer confederations take deliberate active measures to ensure that women athletes don’t receive the same number of fans, equal glory or fat paychecks as their male counterparts.
-
We grieve for nine innocent African American churchgoers who were slaughtered at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston Wednesday night because of the color of their skin. The terrorist said he did this because of their race, his actions stemming from hate. Terror and fear now permeate our houses of worship and our souls. We have wept, prayed, tweeted, mobilized and marched for a new social justice movement that demands true equal justice for all.
-
Our hearts go out to those mourning the nine Americans killed in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. on Wednesday night. As we join them in mourning, we must work together to repair a society so broken that racial hatred can instigate unimaginable violence. All people of good will must speak strongly and act decisively to banish violence and hate.
-
-
High-ranking officials of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, have been indicted for corruption. FIFA's illegal activities don't stop there, however. Rampant gender bias exists at every level of FIFA, from the top down. This multi-billion dollar powerhouse deliberately excludes and discriminates against women. It's time for that to end.
-
(L to R: Emcee and Legal Momentum Board member Loria Yeadon, Honorees Eileen Simon, Linda Zecher, Suzanne Rich Folsom, Gina Proia, and Aiming High founder Karen Kaplowitz.)
-
The Senate’s failure to confirm Loretta Lynch as US Attorney General because of partisan disagreement over an important bill on human trafficking is a sad irony. Lynch has been a top leader in the fight against human trafficking during her tenure as US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
-
The Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. UPS has several things going for it. Most importantly, it upholds the key principle of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) by making it clear that pregnant workers cannot be treated worse than other workers. Consistent with that principle, it precludes employers from unjustifiably excluding pregnant workers under a policy that already accommodates many of their colleagues.
-
Legal Momentum's 10th annual Women of Achievements Awards Dinner took place at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco on March 5. The awards honored seven outstanding women who have reached the top of their professions in business, law, and public service. This year's honorees were Connie Collingsworth, General Counsel and Secretary, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Marie Oh Huber, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, RA/QA and Corporate Relations, Agilent Technologies; The Honorable Marilyn Hall Patel, Federal Judge (retired), U.S.