Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) is an American non-profitgender justice/women's rights organization that was founded in 1974. ERA is a legal and advocacy organization for advancing rights and opportunities for women, girls, and people of marginalized gender identities through legal cases and policy advocacy.
In 2018, ERA co-sponsored and played a role in passing a package of anti-sexual harassment legislation, strengthening protections for working people across California, holding neglectful employers accountable, and making it easier for victims to get justice and healing. In 2016, ERA settled a lawsuit on behalf of women employed by BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, who experienced a sexually hostile work environment and was discriminated against in promotion and job assignment decisions.[1] The women received $3 million settlement, and BAE made significant changes to its discrimination and harassment policies. In 2015, ERA sued facilities management giant ABM Industries, Inc.,[2] on behalf of night-shift janitor Maria Bojorquez, who was sexually assaulted, harassed, and faced retaliation at work. In the settlement, ABM agreed to thorough outside reviews for investigations of rape or attempted rape at their company benefitting thousands of current and future workers.
In May 2012, ERA released a report on pregnancy accommodation law: Expecting A Baby, Not A Lay-Off: Why Federal Law Should Require the Reasonable Accommodation of Pregnant Workers.[3] ERA is a main proponent of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.[4][5][6] In June 2011, Equal Rights Advocates was among the co-counsel (including the Impact Fund, Cohen Milstein, and other firms) representing Betty Dukes and women in Wal-Mart plaintiffs across the county in the historic Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores class action. Dukes v. Wal-Mart was a class action sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores challenging its policies and practices of denying equal pay and promotion opportunities to its female workforce. The Supreme Court's ruling against the lawsuit has had a lasting legacy in class action litigation.[7][8][9][10]
In 1999, ERA and co-counsel settled a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit over the Pacific Bell's denial of early retirement benefits to workers who took maternity leave (Pallas v. Pacific Bell). The case covered a class of nearly 10,000 women with a settlement of more than $25 million. In 1991, alongside the Asian Law Caucus and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), ERA won a landmark federal case on behalf of Alicia Castrejon, an undocumented worker whose pregnancy discrimination lawsuit raised the issue of undocumented workers’ rights under the federal anti-discrimination law. (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, A. Castrejon v. Tortilleria La Mejor) The ruling resulted in thousands of undocumented immigrant workers receiving legal protection against discrimination. Also in 1991, the organization and several public interest law organizations submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging “fetal protection” policies used by employers nationwide to exclude women from high-paying industrial jobs traditionally dominated by men. (United Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls) The Court’s landmark ruling found fetal-protection policies to be a form of sex discrimination forbidden under Title VII. Equal Rights Advocates also played a key role in the 1991 passage of the California Family Rights Act, which provides eligible employees up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to care for their own serious health condition or that of a family member, or to bond with a new child. Passage of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act followed two years later.
In 1989, ERA challenged the federal government's policy of setting employee salaries based upon earnings in previous jobs, a practice that institutionalized and perpetuated sex- and race-basedwage discrimination (Bell v. Kemp). In 1987, ERA succeeded in a 5-year challenge to the discriminatory hiring policies of the San Francisco Fire Department. The City signed a Consent Decree that included hiring and promotional goals for women and people of color, one of the initial decrees to have specific goals for women of color. (Davis et al. v. City and County of San Francisco). Also in 1987, the organization's amicus brief contributed to a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a California law requiring employers of five or more people to provide up to 4 months of unpaid leave to women disabled by pregnancy or childbirth. (California Federal Savings & Loan v. Department of Fair Employment and Housing).
In 1985, ERA sued the City and County of San Francisco on behalf of Louette Colombano, a 9-year veteran of the city police force, who was subjected to severe, life-threatening harassment, including extreme sexual harassment, alongside other women officers in the city’s first class to include women police recruits. (Colombano v. City and County of San Francisco) After a fraught public lead-up, ERA reached a $800,000 settlement for Colombano on the eve of the trial.
In 1981, the organization brought a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Bernardi v. Yeutter), resulting in a consent decree with inclusive hiring goals and the creation of a $1.5 million affirmative action fund. In 1980, ERA sued Bank of American on behalf of an employee who experienced egregious sex and race discrimination at work (Miller v. Bank of America). This landmark lawsuit extended existing legal precedent to include sexual harassment, resulting in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that employers are liable for injury inflicted by a supervisor. ERA and co-counsel negotiated a landmark Consent Decree requiring the Secretary of Labor in 1979, establishing goals and timetables for hiring women federal contractors. (Advocates for Women v. Usery).
The organization appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge a school district’s forced maternity leave policy and the denial of accrued sick pay for pregnancy-related disabilities in 1978 (Berg v. Richmond Unified School District). Following remand by the Court, a settlement was reached. In 1977, ERA successfully challenged Greyhound’s policy of excluding qualified women bus drivers through minimum height and weight requirements in 1977. (Mueller v. Greyhound Lines West) As a result, Greyhound eliminated the sexist requirements and established female hiring goals.
In 1974, the year the organization was founded, ERA co-founder Wendy Williams argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that the state cannot deny disability insurance coverage to women disabled by pregnancy. (Geduldig v. Aiello) The Supreme Court ruled in favor of discrimination that day, but victory came 4 years later, when Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Equity in schools and universities
In 2019, ERA launched an initiative to End Sexual Violence in Education, and the nation's first pro bono attorney network dedicated to providing free legal help to student survivors. In the previous year, the organization joined forces with other national advocacy groups to sue the Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos over attempts to reverse Title IX protections.[11] The lawsuit is ongoing.
In 2018, ERA with co-counsel represented two scientific researchers at a biomedical research institute[which?] in a lawsuit over their employers' inadequate response to sexual harassment and retaliation. The settlement resulted in monetary damages for clients, and the establishment of a model Title IX program specifically focused on curbing the type of sexual harassment common in research labs. These changes helped 2,800+ current graduate students and employees, plus thousands more in years to come.
The organization played a key role in developing one of the country’s most progressive K-12 public school sexual harassment policies for the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in Oakland, California. ERA and Alliance for Girls worked directly with students at the school to develop innovative new policies, which were then passed unanimously by the Board of Education, in 2017.
The organization represented players on the U.C. Berkeley Women’s Field Hockey team in a 2016 lawsuit after the university revoked the team's on-campus practice and competition field privileges to construct a new practice field for men’s football and lacrosse. After filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights on their behalf, ERA negotiated a settlement resulting in a new on-campus field and monetary relief for the student athletes. In February 2012, ERA reached a 1.3 million dollar settlement with UC Davis in a Title IX case ERA filed in 2001 on behalf of UC Davis female wrestlers.[12][13]
ERA and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund resolved the first case to confirm that schools can be held liable under Title IX for sexual harassment of students by other students in 1997 (Doe v. Petaluma). In 1993, ERA filed the country's first Title IX class complaint over a "hostile environment" with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights on behalf of students and faculty at UC Santa Cruz, who wanted to challenge the rampant sexual assault and harassment on their campus.
In 1975, on behalf of 10-year-old soccer player Amy Love, ERA filed a class-action lawsuit against the California Youth Soccer Association (Love v. California Youth Soccer Association), resulting in the Association repealing its ban on girls in soccer league competitions. One year later, Title IX went into effect, prompting greatly increased participation by girls and young women in student athletic programs.
Stronger California
ERA leads the workplace justice efforts, including on fair pay and harassment for Stronger California which is a collaborative campaign of over 50 advocacy groups and coalitions from across the state. ERA co-founded and chairs this cross-sector network, that works to help Californians combat poverty and build assets, achieve workplace justice and family-friendly workplaces, and expand access to affordable, quality child care.
Equal Pay Today
ERA co-founded with partners across the country the Equal Pay Today campaign, which works to close the wage gap that most harms women of color and low-paid working women.
National Free Legal Advice & Counseling Hotline
Established in the early 1980s, ERA's Advice & Counseling (A&C) Program consists of three components: a toll-free, multi-lingual hotline; Know Your Rights brochures; and in-person trainings. The A&C hotline is staffed by law clerks who receive training and supervision from ERA attorneys. ERA serves over a thousand callers each year, providing legal assistance and tracking trends that need immediate redress.[14][15][16]
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. This is Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235, codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688.
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment can be physical and/or a demand or request for sexual favors, making sexually colored remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims can be of any gender.
Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. From 2008 to 2012, she was the special gender adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) is an agency of California state government charged with the protection of residents from employment, housing and public accommodation discrimination, and hate violence. It is the largest state civil rights agency in the United States. It also provides representation to the victims of hate crimes. CRD has a director who is appointed by the governor of California and maintains a total of five offices and five educational clinics throughout the state. Today, it is considered part of the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 is a United States federal statute. It amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to "prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy."
Harry Pregerson was a United States circuit judge appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
Mauldin v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. was a sexual discrimination class action lawsuit filed on October 16, 2001, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, seeking back pay and an injunction. The suit challenged Walmart's denial of health insurance coverage for prescription contraceptives. The case was granted class action status with an estimated 400,000 women eligible for participation in the lawsuit.
The timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms, as well as other formal changes (e.g. reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents). The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism; for that, see Timeline of feminism.
A protected group, protected class (US), or prohibited ground (Canada) is a category by which people qualified for special protection by a law, policy, or similar authority. In Canada and the United States, the term is frequently used in connection with employees and employment and housing. Where illegal discrimination on the basis of protected group status is concerned, a single act of discrimination may be based on more than one protected class. For example, discrimination based on antisemitism may relate to religion, ethnicity, national origin, or any combination of the three; discrimination against a pregnant woman might be based on sex, marital status, or both.
Ann Olivarius is an American-British lawyer who specializes in cases of civil litigation, sexual discrimination, and sexual harassment, assault, and abuse.
This is a list of events in 2011 that affected LGBT rights.
Wal-Mart v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338 (2011), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that a group of roughly 1.5 million women could not be certified as a valid class of plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit for employment discrimination against Walmart. Lead plaintiff Betty Dukes, a Walmart employee, and others alleged gender discrimination in pay and promotion policies and practices in Walmart stores.
Bernice Resnick Sandler was an American women's rights activist. She is best known for being instrumental in the creation of Title IX, a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972, in conjunction with representatives Edith Green and Patsy Mink and Senator Birch Bayh in the 1970s. She has been called "the Godmother of Title IX" by The New York Times. Sandler wrote extensively about sexual and peer harassment towards women on campus, coining the phrase "the chilly campus climate".
Israel Women's Network is a feminist non-partisan civil society organization founded in Jerusalem in 1984. IWN's mission is to advance the status of women in Israel by promoting equality through a range of projects and methods.
The following timeline represents formal legal changes and reforms regarding women's rights in the United States except voting rights. It includes actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents.
Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination "on the basis of sex" in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government. The Obama administration interpreted Title IX to cover discrimination on the basis of assigned sex, gender identity, and transgender status. The Trump administration determined that the question of access to sex-segregated facilities should be left to the states and local school districts to decide. The validity of the executive's position is being tested in the federal courts.
Sexual harassment in the workplace in US labor law has been considered a form of discrimination on the basis of sex in the United States since the mid-1970s. There are two forms of sexual harassment recognized by United States law: quid pro quo sexual harassment and behavior that creates a hostile work environment. It has been noted that a number of the early sexual harassment cases were brought by African American women and girls.
G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board was a court case dealing with transgender rights in the United States. The case involved a transgender boy attending a Virginia high school, who sued the local school board after he was forced to use girls' restrooms based on his assigned gender under the school board's policy. While the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of the student based on Obama administration policy related to Title IX protections, the election of Donald Trump changed the underlying policy. A pending hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States was vacated and the case was sent back to the Fourth Circuit.
The legal and regulatory history of transgender and transsexual people in the United States begins in the 1960s. Such legislation covers federal, state, municipal, and local levels, as well as military justice. It reflects broader societal attitudes which have shifted significantly over time and have impacted legislative and judicial outcomes.
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