Alex Sink, CFO of Florida, the candidate vying to be Florida's first female governor wants to strategically position herself as a PTA mom. Who knew the term would carry weight

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Alex Sink, candidate for governor, PTA mom?

Apparently, “balance” is now a dirty word. As in “Balance is a myth.” At first, I was inclined to dismiss this as so much sound and fury signifying nothing, but I can’t seem to let go of it. The dirtying of the word seems to me to contribute to the repulsive notion that women are something other than full-fledged human beings with the ability and the right to manage their own lives – not to mention to focus on what actually matters

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A Word is a Word is a Word. Or Not

The ABA held a teleconference today about Family Responsibilities Discrimination (if you missed the program and want to order a recording, you can click here: EEO WorkLife Initiatives: Family Responsibilities Discrimination ). The program covered why FRD is such a hot issue in employment law right now, how the claims arise and how they are litigated, the recent EEOC enforcement guidance, statutes and causes of action commonly used by FRD plaintiffs, key cases, compliance and prevention, and litigation tips. Many thanks to Carolyn Lerner of Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman for moderating, to Margaret Murray of the Law Offices of Margaret E

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ABA Teleconference on FRD

Joan Williams and Cynthia Calvert gave a presentation at an ALI-ABA conference last week in Boston, and a question came up about how many sizable verdicts have been awarded in Family Responsibilities Discrimination cases. Here are the stats, which come from our ever-growing database of FRD cases (now over 1,000 cases): 80 verdicts/settlements at or over $100,000 10 verdicts/settlements at or over $1,000,000 largest multiple-plaintiff award (settlement): $49 million largest single-plaintiff award (verdict): $11.65 million Of course, not every FRD case concludes with stratospheric damages.

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Verdicts in FRD Cases

When I saw the headlines about WalMart moving to flexible scheduling, I was elated to think that it might have finally decided to become a leader in the work/life arena — but only until I read the story and saw that what WalMart is actually doing is undermining any sort of work/life balance for its employees. Here’s a bit of the story, from the Wall Street Journal: [U]sing a new computerized scheduling system, [WalMart] will start moving many of its 1.3 million workers from predictable shifts to a system based on the number of customers in stores at any given time

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WalMart Even More Family-UNfriendly

It’s here! We are pleased to announce that WorkLife Law’s Guide to Family Responsibilities Discrimination has finally been published! Here’s the press release: Legal Guide to Family Responsibilities Discrimination is Published Treatise is First of its Kind in Growing Area of Employment Law SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A woman’s position is eliminated while she is on maternity leave. A father who takes time off to be with his kids is taken off important assignments

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New Family Responsibilities Discrimination Treatise

Many women doubt there is an “opt out revolution”, and a new report by the Center for WorkLife Law proves their doubt is well-founded. The report, “Opt Out” or Pushed Out?: How the Press Covers Work/Family Conflict ” shows that press reports of women choosing to stay home have made sweeping generalizations about female workers from very limited examples of women who are not representative of female workers as a whole. Equally importantly, the report presents hard evidence that women who leave the workforce for childcare reasons are more often pushed out of their jobs by inflexible schedules and inflexible workplaces

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New Report: "Opt Out" or Pushed Out?