What's New

NEW! WorkLife Law's Gender Bias Learning Project
Unfortunately, gender bias is still alive and well in academia. With support from an NSF ADVANCE leadership grant, WLL has developed the Gender Bias Learning Project, an online training on how to identify -- and survive --the four basic patterns of gender bias. Visit the project's website or, for more information, visit our For Academics section.

WorkLife Law's State FRD Legislation Tracker

Several states have considered or are considering legislation to explicitly prohibit FRD. Download our state legislation tracker for details and links. For more information, visit our FRD public policy page.

FRD trainings available WorkLife Law has a variety of training materials and can work with you to provide trainings tailored to your organization's or company's needs.

EEOC issues guidance on Caregiver Discrimination
The EEOC issued enforcement guidance about caregiver discrimination, which is another name for Family Responsibilities Discrimination. The guidance, which contains examples of personnel actions that the EEOC would consider discriminatory...
>> Read more


WLL in the News

Nancy Folbre, "Gender Bias Bingo," The New York Times, November 9, 2009

Vivia Chen, "Study: Part-Time Partners Pull Their Weight," The Am Law Daily, September 23, 2009

>> Read more


Upcoming Events

October 29, 2009
"Project for Attorney Retention (PAR) Diversity & Flexibility Connection Conference", Washington, DC

October 29-30, 2009
"National Science Foundation ADVANCE PI Meeting", Washington, DC (Joan Williams, Mary Rauner)

November 11-12, 2009
"Gender Bias in Academia", Case Western University, Cleveland, OH (Joan Williams)

November 16, 2009
"CUNY Center for Humanities", New York, NY (Joan Williams)

March 16-17, 2010
"Society for Human Resource Management Employment Law and Legislative Conference", Washington, DC (Joan Williams)

April 6, 2010
"Chicago-Kent School of Law Piper Lecture", Chicago, IL (Joan Williams)

>> Read more



Employees: Think You've Been Treated Unfairly because of FRD?
Contact our Hotline


Employers: Get Answers to Your FRD Questions
>> click here


Hidden Gender Bias in Academia?
>> Click here for info and resources


Download our newsletter
>> visit our publications page


Visit the WLL Blog Get the latest information about WLL and FRD
>> visit us at blogspot


Meet the WLL Advisory Board


Lawyers: What you need to know about FRD
Have current FRD law at your fingertips with WorkLife Law's Guide to Family Responsibilities Discrimination

>> click here for Guide


Please Support WorkLife Law
Click here for information about ways you can help WorkLife Law.

Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD) is employment discrimination against workers based on their family caregiving responsibilities. Pregnant women, mothers and fathers of young children, and employees with aging parents or sick spouses or partners may encounter FRD. They may be rejected for hire, passed over for promotion, demoted, harassed, or terminated -- despite good performance -- simply because their employers make personnel decisions based on stereotypical notions of how they will or should act given their family responsibilities.

FRD affects men and women across the income spectrum and employers in every industry. Cases have included those in low-wage jobs (grocery clerks, nurses' aides), pink-collar jobs (administrative assistants, teachers), blue-collar jobs (police, firefighters), and professional/managerial jobs (lawyers, doctors, executives). Here are some examples of FRD:

  • firing or demoting employees when they become pregnant;
  • passing over highly qualified mothers for hire or promotion in favor of less qualified fathers or women without children;
  • firing employees without valid business reasons when they return from maternity or paternity leave;
  • denying flexibility to employees who want it for child care reasons, while allowing flexibility to employees for non-family reasons (e.g., to participate on a sports team);
  • firing employees whose spouses or elderly parents become disabled for fear of increased absenteeism or higher health insurance premiums; and
  • fabricating work infractions or performance deficiencies to justify dismissal of employees with family responsibilities. 


The Center for WorkLife Law (WorkLife Law or WLL) is a nonprofit research and advocacy group with a unique "six stakeholder" model that reflects our belief that many different stakeholders are ready, willing, and able to play a role in sparking social and organizational change around work/life issues. WorkLife Law works with employees, employers, plaintiffs? employment lawyers, management-side employment lawyers, unions, and public policymakers, to educate each group about the prevalence of family responsibilities discrimination, and to develop effective measures to eliminate FRD. WLL also works with social scientists to spark interdisciplinary studies of bias against caregivers, and works extensively with the press.

WorkLife Law is housed at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. WLL's work is made possible through generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Rockefeller Family Fund, The Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation, the Women's Bar Association of D.C. Foundation, Abigail Disney, and the University of California Hastings College of the Law.


Visit the UC Hastings College of the Law

© 2002-2009 The Center for WorkLife Law
http://www.worklifelaw.org