Equal Rights For Woman Still A Battleground

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Ellen Simon
There is no doubt that women are still struggling for equality in the workplace.

Last week, Dell agree to pay $9.1 million dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit filed because of claims that the company discriminated against its female employees.

The case was filed in federal court in Austin, Texas in October by two former employees. It alleged that Dell engaged in a “practice of gender discrimination with respect to compensating and promoting female employees within the company."

Under the settlement Dell will pay:

  • $5.6 million in back pay for female employees who were in certain jobs between 2007 and 2008
  • $1 million dollars in plaintiffs' legal costs
  • $3.5 million to establish a pay-equity fund for current female employees in certain job grades covered by the suit including management and non-management positions

Dell also agreed, as part of the settlement, to hire experts to review compensation, hiring and promotion practices and conduct a pay-equity analysis.

That’s a whopping big settlement and a very quick one considering that the case filed less than a year ago. I have one friend who worked on a gender class-action discrimination case for over twenty-three years (a case against the US Information Agency and Voice of America which ended up in a $508 million dollar settlement for hundreds of women ).

I suspect that part of the reason for the settlement was simply that the plaintiffs had the goods on Dell. One of  women who brought the lawsuit was a former HR manager who apparently had or knew of the data which substantiated the claims.

I give credit to Dell's decision makers for deciding to pay the plaintiffs what they appear to have been entitled to  --- instead of running up the gigantic legal bills which generally correspond with the scorched earth defense of  these kinds of cases.

News of the settlement came in interesting juxtaposition to news of the reintroduction of the Equal Rights Amendment ("ERA").

Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York and more than 50 co-sponsors reintroduced the ERA last week in the House. The amendment would add the following sentence to the US Constitution:

Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.

The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in 1923 by Lucretia Mott. It passed through Congress in 1972 but fell three states short of the 38 needed for ratification. In her announcement, Representative Malone had this to say:

Women have made incredible progress in the past few decades. But laws can change, government regulations can be weakened, and judicial attitudes can shift. 

The only way for women to achieve permanent equality in the United States is to write it into the Constitution.  These 54 words, when passed by Congress and ratified by 38 states, will make equal rights for women not just a goal to be desired but a constitutional right.

With news of the Dell settlement, coupled with cases of gender discrimination we see on almost a daily basis, it's about time for the Equal Rights Amendment to become part of the constitutional law of the land.

Some say with the new administration, there's actually a chance that it might happen. Wouldn't that be something.

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Few Women Law Partners Comes As No Suprise

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Ellen Simon

It's very well known and often bragged about that over 50% of law school graduates are women. So what's the problem with women in the legal profession?

The problem reported last week is that while women represent over 50% of those graduating from law school, they made up only 28% of those granted partnership at the 85 major law U.S. law firms according to a  new study published by the Project for Attorney Retention at the Hastings College of Law.

The disparity between the number of female law school graduates and female partners is quite remarkable. And it's not because the women are less intelligent or capable than their male counterparts. As cynical as I may be, I don't think anyone would even argue that.

While few want to come out and accuse the legal profession of  gender discrimination,  I have no problem doing so. (Of course, not every firm, not every lawyer)  It's all over the legal profession -- wage discrimination, lack of promotional opportunity, sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, stereotyping, including a particularly horrible record  for women of color. It's all there, and it occurs for many reasons.

We all know that many law firms have a hard time accommodating the needs of working wives and mothers.  While firms are certainly much better than they were twenty-five or thirty years ago about flexible schedules and part-time work, they still have a long way to go.

The Amercian Bar Association's (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession studies this subject and published it's findings in 1988, 1995, and 2003. The contents are neither encouraging nor surprising. The last report notes:

Current data indicates that more and more firms are allowing part-time schedules, but women testifying at the the 2003 hearings still reported that choosing the part-time option posed professional risks.  A partner at a large national law firm reported a consensus at her firm that the part-time policy is simply 'words on a piece of paper''. . .[Y]our commitment to the firm is still questioned once you have decided to go on a reduced hours schedule.

In addition, women who have obligations to their families are eliminated from mentoring and networking opportunities with clients.  Often times even single women are eliminated from these events -- the golf game, the baseball game, the hunting trip -- simply because they are women.  If you don't  meet and interact with the clients, you don't get the business.  If you don't get the business, you don't produce the revenue and you don't make partner. It's really pretty straightforward.

There's also the plain old fashioned gender bias that is rampant in law firms. Many men believe that women should be home with their children and not working at all or don't have the appropriate composition to practice law. The fact that these views are held by lawyers, and that this attitude is illegal when acted upon in the workplace, does not seem to prevent many partners from discriminating against the women in their firms in a variety of ways.

The latest  ABA report on this subject included the following:

The 1995 report noted that '[b]oth men and women report that women lawyers are viewed as insufficiently aggressive, uncomfortably forthright, too emotional, or not as serious as men about their careers.  When women opt for family leave or report sexual harassment, these stereotypes are reinforced.'

In 2003, there was evidence that those stereotypes have not dissipated .....

One can hardly go a week without reading an article about a law firm being sued for or settling, or  losing  some kind of discrimination lawsuit.   It's not just because law firms are easy targets.  They really do discriminate against their lawyers at an extraordinary rate.

The fact is that many women simply leave the profession and won't sue.  I have had dozens of calls through the years from women who were discriminated against and sexually harassed at their firms.  Without exception, each decided not to sue for fear that they would never find another job.

So while it's better than it was, we are not nearly where we should be in our profession in terms of providing equal opportunity in the workplace. Wouldn't it be nice if we were at the forefront, instead of the rear, on this issue?

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Public Supports Gay Rights and Congress Should Too

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Ellen Simon

In his address at the Democratic convention, Barack Obama said:

Surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.

Do most Americans agree?  Recent studies show that the answer appears to be yes.Surveys show that 72% of Americans support laws which prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Recent data reported by The Salt Lake Tribune indicates that even in Utah, one of the most conservative states in the country, a majority supports expanded legal protections for gay and trans gender coupes and individuals.  A poll commissioned by the Tribune of 500 registered voters found that :

56 percent of respondents favor legal protections for same-sex couples such as hospital visitation and inheritance rights and employment protections

The Equality Utah poll of 600 Utahns, also reported in the Tribune at the end of January,  found:

  • 62% supported making it illegal to fire workers because of sexual orientation
  • 56.5 supported making it illegal to deny housing because of sexual orientation
  • 63% favored providing gay and lesbian couples with hospital visitation, health insurance, and inheritance rights

Unfortunately, even though anti-discrimination laws have broad support, only 20 states have such laws in effect. That leaves most gay individuals vulnerable to lawful discrimination.  In other words, just to be clear, this means that an individual can be fired because an employer finds out he is gay and chooses to fire him for that reason.  It also means than an employer can lawfully maintain a policy of not hiring gays or lesbians.

It’s about time that the Congress get in line with the majority view of this country and pass legislation prohibiting discrimination against the gay, lesbian, and transgender community who are certainly entitled to equal opportunity just like other Americans. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act should be passed.

Image: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200703/r129060_424471.jpg

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