To commemorate International Women's Day, let's discuss the myriad legal issues women face and the resources that are available at their fingertips.
Despite significant gains in gender equality over the past century, women are still victims of harassment, assault, and discrimination in the workplace and at home.
Here are five legal issues women grapple with and where they can turn for help:
Divorce and child custody. Family law encompasses a wide variety of legal issues that deeply impact women, including child custody, child support, and divorce. Low-income women in family court typically rely upon legal support from local legal services offices to represent them. Reform through policy and impact litigation can protect the rights of mothers and women on a larger scale.
Employment. According to Marcia Angell's piece in The New York Review of Books, "women in more than token numbers have taken their place alongside men at the upper levels of government, the professions, and business, [...] earn more than half of all college degrees, and will shortly make up a majority of lawyers, doctors, and college faculty." Despite strides made toward achieving greater workplace equality, gender discriminatory barriers continue to exist at work regarding pregnancy, breastfeeding, child care, equal pay, and sexual harassment.
As Gloria Steinem sums it up, "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."
Related Resources:
International Women's Day Has an Unexpected History (The Daily Beast)