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...
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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

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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

• 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.