The Center for WorkLife Law is a research and advocacy center that seeks to eliminate employment discrimination against mothers and other family caregivers such as adult children of aging parents. WorkLife Law is based at UC Hastings College of the Law and is directed by professor and author Joan C. Williams. WLL is supported by research and program development grants, university funding, and private donations.

WLL was founded as the Program on Gender, Work & Family in 1998 at American University Washington College of Law. It changed its name to The Center for WorkLife Law in October 2003 to better reflect its increasing emphasis on identifying discriminatory employment practices against caregivers and using the legal system to prevent discrimination.

WorkLife Law studies and tracks family responsibilities discrimination litigation. The goal of WorkLife Law is to prevent the discrimination from occurring in the first place, however, thereby alleviating the need for employees to resort to the courts for protection and allowing businesses to be more productive.

WorkLife Law seeks to eliminate caregiver discrimination by:

• Assisting caregivers who may be experiencing discrimination at work;
  
  
• working with employers to identify and prevent discriminatory practices;
  
  
• providing technical guidance to state and federal policy makers who seek to develop public policies to prevent caregiver discrimination;
  
  
• providing technical guidance to lawyers who advise employers on how to avoid employment discrimination, and to lawyers representing employees who believe they have been discriminated against; and
  
  
• working with the press to document common challenges facing caregivers, and to highlight employers and policies that have successfully overcome such challenges.
  
  
  

WLL’s Honorary and Advisory Boards, click here.

To meet our staff, click here.

To see WLL’s speaking engagements and presentations, click here.

To find out how you can help WLL continue its important work, click here.