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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August 2021
- August 3, 2021 is Black Women's Equal Pay Day, the day a Black woman finally earns what a white, non-Hispanic man earned in 2020—some 215 days into the new year.
- Two ways we can recognize, and address, this wage gap are by creating equal educational opportunity and creating transparency in pay practices
- Black girls are disproportionately disciplined as compared to white girls—facing exponentially higher rates of out of school suspensions, expulsions and referrals to law enforcement—based on implicit and explicit gender- and race-based biases.
- Among those disproportionately disadvantaged by pay secrecy are Black women, who historically have earned less due to discriminatory practices, have less leverage, and are thus in a weaker position to negotiate higher salaries.
- We continue to advocate for equal educational opportunities by encouraging robust enforcement of our civil rights laws so that Black girls can enter the workforce competitively and we continue to envision and advocate for innovative policies which close the wage gap that has persisted for far too long.
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July 2021
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May 2021
- Legal Momentum and the Center for Urban Pedagogy release a new resource, Women, Know Your Rights at Work!. This fold-out poster in English and Spanish that aims to empower women workers, breaking down information about key workplace protections and practical strategies to assert them.
- Our guide was created based on input from women workers and intends to tackle some of the unique vulnerabilities and challenges faced by women most underserved by our laws, including women of color, immigrant women, victims of gender-based violence, and the disproportionate number of women working in low-wage industries.
- The goal of our initiative is to get this resource into the hands of as many women who need this information and often do not have access to it.
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May 2021
- Legal Momentum and the Center for Urban Pedagogy release a new resource, Women, Know Your Rights at Work!. This fold-out poster in English and Spanish that aims to empower women workers, breaking down information about key workplace protections and practical strategies to assert them.
- Our guide was created based on input from women workers and intends to tackle some of the unique vulnerabilities and challenges faced by women most underserved by our laws, including women of color, immigrant women, victims of gender-based violence, and the disproportionate number of women working in low-wage industries.
- The goal of our initiative is to get this resource into the hands of as many women who need this information and often do not have access to it.
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May 2021
Over 50 years since its passage, protections afforded by the law ring hollow for too many women who have no clue what their coworkers are making and are often discouraged or prohibited from finding out.
Q & A about Pay Transparency:
- Why is pay secrecy a problem for pay equity?
- What are the benefits of salary disclosure laws?
- Who benefits from these laws?
- Won’t this approach be burdensome for employers?
- Shouldn’t employers have flexibility to set salary based on the qualifications of the applicants?
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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.
