Reflections on International Women's Day

Today marks the 111th annual International Women’s Day. Bryan Schwartz Law is an ardent supporter of women’s rights, and has fought for working women since our firm’s founding in 2009. Supporting women in the workplace means more than just remedying cases of gender discrimination: it requires us to support Black women who are discriminated against because of their gender and race, to support disabled women who experience the dual marginalization of gender and disability, and to work at all other intersections of oppression.

Women today face a terrifying legal landscape, one in which women sometimes feel they take a step backward nearly every time they take a step forward. Emboldened by a conservative Supreme Court, more and more states are working to gut Roe v. Wade and return to a time where only women wealthy enough to take time off work and travel out of state are able to get safe, legal abortions. Young queer women across the South face new legislation that aims to literally silence the queer experience and queer history, while at the same time Texas has begun to criminalize parents who support their child’s gender, regardless of what their birth certificate says. Breonna Taylor’s killer has been acquitted, and Black women continue to live with an unacceptable threat of police violence. Women in Ukraine face unspeakable violence and displacement that grows every day.

And yet, amidst all of this, there are silver linings. Ketanji Brown Jackson is poised to become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, an accomplishment that is both momentous and 233 years too late. The U.S. women’s soccer team just won a six-year fight to be paid the same as the men’s national soccer team, remedying a pay inequity that persisted despite the women’s team routinely outperforming the men’s team in the world’s biggest tournaments. Globally, eight countries swore in their first female head of state in 2021. And, President Biden just signed into law a bill prohibiting forced arbitration in sex harassment and assault cases.

Bryan Schwartz Law is committed to partnering with and advocating for women, whether they have been paid less than their male counterparts, denied disability accommodations that would allow them to thrive, or terminated because they spoke out against inequities they see in their own workspace. If you are a woman who has been treated unfairly in the workplace, please contact Bryan Schwartz Law.