LM in Action Newsletters
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Subscribe NowOur LM in Action Series highlights the work of our organization. This national newsletter provides an interesting and challenging look at current legal and political issues critical to the advancement of women and girls. Stay up to date with the changes that lie ahead in the struggle for women's rights.
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April 2021
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A new Tina Turner documentary was recently released, wherein Tina describes the vicious intimate partner sexual abuse to which her first husband subjected her to until she escaped. In the film, Oprah Winfrey observes that when Tina disclosed this in 1981 “nobody talked about sexual abuse, physical abuse, domestic abuse, abuse period. Ours was the generation that started to break the silence.”
- Just one year before, in 1980, Legal Momentum had established its National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts (NJEP) to "break the silence" about gender bias in judicial decision. Following this, supreme courts nationwide appointed task forces to investigate gender bias in their own court systems and recommend reforms.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “About 1 in 5 women and 1 in 12 men have [been subjected to] contact sexual violence by an intimate partner.” This statistic severely understates the nature and extent of Intimate Partner Sexual Abuse which encompasses far more than “contact sexual violence.
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April 2021
- We stand with our Asian communities and remain committed in our gender justice work to ensure that violence against all women is not minimized and silenced.
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March 2021
- As we mark another Equal Pay Day on March 24th, it is essential that government and businesses invest in solutions to lift up the disproportionate number of women doing low-wage work.
- For over a decade, the federal minimum wage has stagnated at $7.25, with an even lower threshold of $2.13 set for workers in tipped industries, who are expected to make up the difference in tips.
- The current minimum wage relegates too many women and their children to cycles of poverty, economic insecurity, and inequality. And this reality is not by chance, it is the product of decades of structural discrimination and slavery-era policies that targeted industries predominated by black workers (and now immigrant workers).
- We are at a critical juncture to achieve transformative change for the most vulnerable women and we must maintain momentum. Any self-proclaimed advocates of gender and racial equity has a responsibility to join these efforts, because we cannot achieve meaningful gender equity without a living wage for all.
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March 2021
- Legal Momentum applauds today’s passage of two measures in the U.S. House of Representatives that advance gender equality: H.R. 1620, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021 (VAWA), and H.J. Res 17, to remove the ratification deadline from the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
- VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2021 provides targeted enhancements that increase access to services and prevention for all survivors, including those whose needs have been unmet in previous reauthorizations
- With the ratification of the ERA, which would provide broader gender equality protections than the 14th Amendment, the U.S. Constitution would join the other 165 countries which already guarantees equal rights to women in their constitutions
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February 2021
- On January 20, 2021, Legal Momentum issued its list of priority actions urging the Biden-Harris administration to swiftly reverse assaults on gender justice within its first 100 days in office.
- Legal Momentum’s agenda—which is not exhaustive—makes specific recommendations to undo harm to anti-discrimination enforcement, equity in education, economic and workplace equality, access to reproductive health and justice, healthcare access, and immigrant rights.
- Find our Full Agenda and Executive Summary on our website.
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January 2021
Legal Momentum mourns the loss of our long-time board Vice-Chair, Professor Deborah Rhode. Deborah joined our board in 1999 and became a Vice Chair in 2000, serving in that position until her passing on January 8, 2021. Deborah Rhode was the second woman awarded tenure at Stanford Law School, where she taught until her death. For over thirty years, in books and articles and speeches, Deborah both acknowledged women’s progress and left no doubt about the mountains still to be climbed.
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December 2020
Legal Momentum looks forward to working with the new administration to center gender equity in its agenda, by prioritizing:
- Eradicating violence against women and girls
- Ensuring workplace equality and economic empowerment,
- Providing equal educational opportunities and,
- Promoting gender fairness in the justice system.
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November 2020
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El conjunto de herramientas legales a favor de la igualdad económica de las mujeres está disponible aquí.
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Se busca a garantizar que las mujeres y sus defensores comunitarios estén mejor informados sobre sus derechos en el lugar de trabajo y tengan herramientas para trabajar juntas para protegerlas.
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Esta iniciativa empodera y eleva TODAS las mujeres
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November 2020
- The petition and our brief challenge an alarming ruling issued by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens to eviscerate Title IX’s core safeguards against sexual harassment in schools.
- The Circuit Court acknowledged that the professor’s allegations of cheating were fraudulent, but nonetheless concluded that Rhodes College could not be held directly liable.
- We argue that by artificially severing the sex-biased actions of Bose’s professor from the school’s expulsion, which was undeniably based solely on those actions, the decision undermines the core purpose of Title IX.
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October 2020
- This Hispanic Heritage Month, it is critical that we recognize the courageous work and leadership of Latina women and address how COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted Hispanic women.
- Latinas earn a mere 54 cents for every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man—the largest deficit within the gender pay gap.
- Legislative responses to COVID-19 should support all Latina women workers and their families negatively impacted by this crisis, regardless of immigration status.
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October 2020
- We filed an amicus brief in support of Chrystul Kizer, a child sex trafficking victim who is currently facing first-degree murder charges in Kenosha County, Wisconsin for allegedly killing her sex trafficker.
- At issue in this case is whether Ms. Kizer is entitled to assert an affirmative defense under Wisconsin Statute § 939.46(1m).
- In our brief, Legal Momentum and fellow amici provide the appellate court with expert insight into the unique trauma of sex trafficking, arguing that Ms. Kizer is precisely the type of person the Wisconsin Legislature is intended to protect
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September 2020
- This election that will have life-altering consequences for women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups in our country.
- Women’s policy issues are rarely given airtime during presidential debates.
- We developed a set of questions for political candidates this election year that center the concerns of women and girls.
