Legal Momentum Briefing Room

Legal Momentum Encourages the U.S. to Ratify CEDAW

Legal Momentum strongly supports the ratification of the Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The United States has long been recognized as a leading voice for women’s rights and human rights, which makes our failure to ratify CEDAW all the more troubling. The U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that has failed to ratify this landmark international human rights agreement. The United States’ absence from this global consensus undermines both the ideals of opportunity and equality set out in CEDAW and our own position as a global leader standing up for women and girls. By ratifying CEDAW, we would strengthen our global voice to the benefit of women and girls around the world.

CEDAW, unquestionably, embodies American values. Most fundamentally, it recognizes that women’s rights are human rights, and that societies that empower women are prosperous, stable societies.

Read Legal Momentum's full statement in support of CEDAW (PDF).

Learn more about Legal Momentum.

Obama Administration's Guide for Ending Child Hunger Omits Child Poverty

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently published the Obama Administration's "Stakeholder Guide" to end childhood hunger by 2015. The guide advocates for increasing the rate at which eligible children participate in Food Stamps and other child nutrition programs. While this is a praiseworthy goal, children in food insecure families suffer from hunger not because they lack nutrition programs - in fact, most of these children already participate in Food Stamps and/or related programs - but because their family's income is too low.

While President Obama's anti-hunger campaign recognized poverty as the "primary cause of hunger" - and the USDA reiterated these sentiments - the Stakeholder Guide makes no mention of child poverty.

Learn more: Administration's Guide for Ending Child Hunger Omits Mention of Child Poverty.

Learn more about the Women and Poverty Program.

Learn more about Legal Momentum.

Working in the Shadows: Immigrant Women Sexually Victimized on the Job

Over four million undocumented immigrant women currently live in the United States. Many of these women are employed in the U.S. food service industry, and, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), many of these women suffer sexual harassment and sexual violence on the job.

Injustice on Our Plates demonstrates what Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program has often found in its efforts across the country: that undocumented immigrant women are forced to work for little pay in a shadow economy, exploited by their employers while remaining invisible to most Americans.

In June, Legal Momentum released Reforming America’s Immigration Laws: A Woman’s Struggle. We noted that undocumented women migrants are "vulnerable to sexual violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other gender-motivated exploitation in the workplace. Absent any fear that employees will report these actions and crimes, employers continue to take advantage of immigrant women."

Injustice on Our Plates echoes Legal Momentum’s findings in the U.S. food service industry. The SPLC interviewed 150 immigrant women working throughout the United States. The vast majority of the women the SPLC interviewed said that they suffered sexual harassment and/or sexual violence on the job. At the Agriprocessers Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa – the site of one of the largest federal immigration raids in history in May 2008 – the women workers described sexual harassment by their male supervisors as “widespread and constant.” According to the SPLC, this type of exploitation is common across the country:

In Salinas, Calif., a worker told the EEOC that farmworkers there referred to one company’s field as the field de calzon, or “field of panties,” because so many women had been raped by supervisors there. In Florida, women farmworkers dubbed fields “the green motel” for the same reason. In Iowa, women said they had encountered the problem so often that they believed it was a common practice in the United States to exchange sex for job security.

Immigrant women are the silent victims of the broken immigration system. Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program advocates for comprehensive immigration reform that considers how even facially gender-neutral laws create more hardship for immigrant women. Congress must create paths to legalization that equitably value women’s work, eliminate 287(g) and/or Safe Communities Programs that often harm immigrant women crime victims, and eradicate backlogs in the family immigration system.

The women profiled in Injustice on Our Plates are the backbone of the U.S. economy, yet they live in the shadows. Comprehensive immigration reform must include provisions to ensure that these women are able to live and work free of sexual harassment, sexual violence, and fear.

Paycheck Fairness Act Fails in Senate, Devastating Blow for Millions of American Women

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 58-41 against moving forward with the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have helped to close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act with harsher penalties against employers who discriminate against workers on the basis of gender.

While the Equal Pay Act, signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963, was a major victory for women, the bill is in dire need of updates to ensure full equality. Though the Act requires that men and women be given "equal pay for equal work," limited enforcement tools have resulted in a persistent wage gap. Today, women continue to face significant barriers in workplace equity.  Women make up half of the workforce, and two-thirds of American families with children depend on this income for survival. Yet, an enormous gender pay gap remains - women make only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn, a divide which is even greater among women of color. This gap translates to a loss of over $10,000 a year, significantly worsening the struggles of many women to keep their families afloat during the economic crisis.

The Senate’s failure to remedy income inequality is not representative of American voters, 84 percent of whom said they supported such a bill. This failure, which Deborah J. Vagins of the ACLU described as another victim of the partisan gridlock that has plagued Congress, will be felt within the homes of millions of American women, particularly in these difficult economic times, when many more families depend on female breadwinners. The vote stands in sharp contrast to the White House’s repeated support for the bill, including issuing a Statement of Administrative Policy advocating the passage of the Act. Following the vote, President Obama gathered with leading advocates of the bill to discuss next steps.

Despite this tragic blow to the livelihoods of millions of women, the struggle is far from over. As Vagins states, “This is not the end of the fight. There is too much at stake to stop the work while families are struggling to make ends meet. People will continue to make their voices heard, our allies in Congress will continue the effort, the advocates will never give up, and the President himself made it clear that despite Wednesday's vote, 'my Administration will continue to fight for a woman's right to equal pay for equal work.'"

Legal Momentum supports all measures to enhance women’s economic security, and the Paycheck Fairness Act is an essential component of this security. We have worked tirelessly to further employment rights, particularly through our Equality Works Program, which uses policy initiatives and impact litigation to challenge discrimination and expand opportunities for women working in historically male-dominated fields such as the skilled trades and firefighting. We strive to strengthen TANF and the social safety net, support job training, and combat workplace discrimination.

Workplace equality is a critical step towards ensuring economic security for women and their families and we will continue to fight until all women receive full economic equality.

Hollaback Challenges Street Harassment as Component of Gender-Based Violence, New York City Council Takes Notice

“Women don’t put up with harassment in the workplace or the home, why are they still putting up with it on the street?” That’s the question asked by Hollaback, a group confronting street harassment using technology, which is geared towards recording and sharing incidents of street harassment with others in efforts to end the pervasive practice. Now, the group has developed an i-Phone application, making responses to harassment even more accessible and quick to disseminate.  Through the website or i-Phone application, individuals are encouraged to recount their experiences, identify the location of the incident, and even share pictures of the perpetrators in efforts to help prevent more harassment and hold perpetrators accountable.

The group was created in response to the widespread phenomena of street harassment and the recognition of this act as one of the most common, yet unchallenged forms of gender-based violence. “Street harassment teaches us to be silent,” said Emily May, the executive director of Hollaback. “It teaches us to walk on. That is the very last thing we want to be teaching women and girls."

The group’s message is not just being heard by users of the website or application, but by the New York City Council Committee on Women’s Issues, who held its first hearing on street harassment last month. The committee chairwoman, Julissa Ferreras, a Democrat from Queens, has vowed to pursue all three demands by a group of activists at the hearings - a study examining street harassment, an advertising campaign, and the establishment of “harassment-free zones” around schools. “Ms. Ferreras called the hearing after visiting a high school in Elmhurst, Queens, where instead of requesting computers or supplies, female students asked her to stop the mechanics in a nearby garage from making inappropriate comments directed at them. Their stories hit close to home for the councilwoman, who grew up in the district and still remembers the ‘speed walk’ to and from school, when she would try to avoid a group of men who stood outside one particular bodega,” writes Karen Zraick in the Times piece. Ms. Ferreras, who understands the pervasiveness of street harassment, said she was even harassed on her way to the hearing.

Challenging and prosecuting street harassment is an essential component to ending all violence against women and LGBTQ individuals. As Hollaback’s website states, “Everyone has a right to feel safe and confident without being objectified. Sexual harassment is a gateway crime that creates a cultural environment that makes gender-based violence OK. There exists a clear legal framework to reproach sexual harassment and abuse in the home and at work, but when it comes to the streets—all bets are off. This gap isn’t because street harassment hurts any less, it’s because there hasn’t been a solution. Until now.”

• To read more from "Phone Apps Aim to Fight Harassment," click here.
• To learn more about Hollaback or to report your own experiences, click here.
• To learn more about Legal Momentum’s work through our Women and Violence project, click here.

Women's Economic Security: The Opportunity Series

Legal Momentum co-sponsors New York University's Women of Color Policy Network's Opportunity Series, a semester-long program of panel discussions, webinars, and lectures about women's economic security in a changing economy.

The economy has shifted dramatically in the last few years, with particularly severe effects on male-dominated sectors like manufacturing and construction. Millions of families now depend on women for household income, yet most women are forced to work without paid sick leave or reliable, affordable childcare. And, of course, gender wage inequality continues to plague American women, who earn 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. The gender wage gap is even more striking for women of color: African-American women make 61 cents and Latinas make 52 cents for every dollar white men earn.

The Opportunity Series has convened a range of experts from across the nation to examine these issues from the perspective of women of color and explore opportunities to develop and maintain women's economic security over the long term. The series has included discussions on single mothers and the wealth gap, the impact of the economic crisis and economic recovery on low-income women and their families, and child care subsidies and low-income women of color.

The Women of Color Policy Network will hold their final Opportunity Series event, "Quality Jobs in a New Economy: Paid Sick Leave and Communities of Color," on Monday, December 6th at 6:30 pm. Experts will discuss the importance of paid sick leave and other work supports for low-wage workers and communities of color in particular.

Legal Momentum Attends First-Ever White House Roundtable on Sexual Violence

Legal Momentum's National Judicial Education Program Director Lynn Hecht Schafran recently attended the first-ever White House national roundtable on sexual violence, sponsored by the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and the White House Council on Women and Girls. The Roundtable included sexual violence experts from a range of disciplines from all parts of country. Representatives from several federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and the Office on Juvenile Justice and Detention Prevention, also attended. Because sexual violence affects women in every area of their lives – from health to education to employment – OVW seeks to mobilize all government agencies in a national campaign against this pervasive problem.

The discussion centered on strategies to educate the public about the realities of sexual assault as opposed to the myths, prevent sexual violence, ensure that victims have access to effective service providers, and hold perpetrators accountable. At the Roundtable, NJEP Director Lynn Hecht Schafran and NJEP Project Attorney Claudia Bayliff also emphasized the importance of accurate data collection by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, public education, and professional education for judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, and probation officers about the myths and misconceptions that undermine victims’ access to justice in these cases.

In conjunction with the event, President Obama announced a national campaign to reduce sexual violence:

“The Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is launching a new national campaign to reduce sexual violence in the United States by improving the criminal justice system response, increasing services for victims, and changing attitudes. Today, the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Department of Justice held the first ever national roundtable on sexual violence at the White House. Over the next six months, OVW will hold regional forums around the country to engage the public in their sexual assault reduction campaign. In the 2011 budget, [I have] proposed doubling funding for VAWA sexual assault program.”

The President also announced increased funding for the Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Action Research Project. The Project was launched to eliminate the enormous backlog of untested rape kits in crime labs across the country. This funding will allow jurisdictions to create multidisciplinary teams to audit their rape kit backlog and devise and implement long-term strategies to solve the backlog problem.

NJEP Director Lynn Hecht Schafran also attended a White House Council on Women and Girls-sponsored event to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month. President Obama and Vice President Biden highlighted the Obama Administration’s exceptional effort to mobilize all government agencies – from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Department of Health and Human Services – to protect victims of domestic and sexual violence and hold perpetrators accountable.

NJEP has recently undertaken an advocacy campaign to change the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) methods for collecting sexual assault data. The media shapes public attitudes toward sexual violence and reporters depend on government statistics about the crime. Unfortunately, BJS’s methodology sharply underestimates the number of rape victims in the general population. Thanks to NJEP’s efforts in conjunction with a number of experts on this issue, the White House now relies on the uncontested expert in the field, Department of Justice-funded Dr. Dean Kilpatrick and his team at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Kilptarick and his team have studied this issue for decades. Their most recent study found that approximately 20 million U.S. women will be victims of sexual assault in their lifetime. This statistic was widely reported by the White House in the publicity surrounding this event.

Learn more OVW’s national campaign to reduce sexual violence in the United States.

Learn more about the Event to End Violence Against Women, sponsored by the White House Council for Women and Girls.

Learn more the National Judicial Education Program’s sexual assault resources.

Learn more about the National Judicial Education Program.

Workplaces Respond to Domestic and Sexual Violence: A National Resource Center

On October 27, 2010 the White House and U.S. Department of Justice announced the launch of Workplaces Respond to Domestic and Sexual Violence: A National Resource Center. The Resource Center was created and funded as a result of Legal Momentum’s advocacy during and after the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 2005.

The Resource Center provides tools for employers to obtain information and assistance in creating workplace policies addressing domestic, sexual and dating violence and stalking. It explains what employers can do to help their employees, and contains model policies designed to address the realities of domestic, sexual and dating violence and stalking in the workplace. Employers can obtain information on safety planning and find the resources that best fit their needs.

The Resource Center is the result of a collaboration among Legal Momentum and six other organizations, including the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and its National Sexual Violence Resource Center, the Resource Sharing Project of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, and the Victim Rights Law Center.