When we talk about the gender discrimination that our clients face in the workplace, we often talk in terms of leveling the playing field for women: We’re not asking employers to treat female employees better than they treat men, but we do demand – and the law requires – that they treat them equally. This […]

Longform.org recently republished four excerpts from Studs Terkel’s Working, which is a 1974 book of oral histories collected by Terkel that focuses on the careers of interviewees from across the spectrum of American jobs.  The four entries excerpted by Longform were all from women, and Longform republished them as “Women at Work.”  Together, the four […]

Lately, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what it means to take a stand in the workplace.  Perhaps it was the hubbub around the threat to retaliate against Emma Watson that got me thinking about it.  Perhaps it was hearing my client Donna Kassman talk about why she chose to come forward and file […]

The Internet was abuzz with news of Emma Watson’s speech at the United Nations—first, with chatter about her public stance on gender equality and then with threats of scandal and exposure in retaliation for her explicit embrace of “feminism.”  Watson, best known to much of the world as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, […]

The current New York Magazine cover story – “The Trans-Everything CEO” – profiles Martine Rothblatt, the highest paid female CEO in America. It paints a fascinating picture worthy of its “futurist, pharma tycoon, satellite entrepreneur, philosopher” subject. There are a million interesting things about the 59-year-old Rothblatt: the three companies she founded (Geostar, Sirius Satellite […]

Female workers at the lowest rung of the economic ladder are getting a boost from a growing campaign to raise wages for fast food workers. The Fast Food Forward campaign—also informally known as the “Fight for $15” movement—is calling for an industry wage of $15 an hour, or double the current federal minimum wage of […]

When Jill Abramson was fired from her position as Executive Editor of The New York Times a few months ago, the Times denied that gender had anything to do with it. They pointed to issues with her management style; apparently Abramson was “bossy” and “pushy” – labels that are rarely assigned to male executives. As […]

Just before Labor Day, whitehouse.gov released a Chart of the Week illustrating that, among college graduates four years after graduation, women earn less than men in nearly every field of study.  A salary gap among recent college graduates is disturbing for two reasons. First, it suggests that women are earning less than men right away—even […]

Working while pregnant is hard. If you don’t believe me (and why should you?), read this.  If you’re a man, read it again, because, holy crap.  And keep in mind that the pregnant lawyer/blogger describes (1) a pregnancy that is “normal” (which is to say, one that does not leave her disabled in the eyes […]

Many of my clients are highly educated, experienced professionals at the top of their industries who have prioritized and sacrificed for their careers—they’re hard workers and they’re really good at what they do.  Still, when gender discrimination in the workplace forces them out of the positions they’ve worked so hard to attain, one of the […]