Last month was big for those interested in the fight for gender equity in the workplace, as two largely publicized cases reached important turning points. On Wednesday, March 25, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Peggy Young in her pregnancy discrimination case against her employer, UPS.  On Friday, March 27, 2015, […]

Earlier this year I coordinated a panel with the Women’s Bar Association on pregnancy discrimination.  The panel focused on a question currently pending before the Supreme Court: whether a federal pregnancy discrimination law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant women.  [Bloggers Note: For more information on this check out my interviews with the […]

At Shattering the Ceiling we cover many of the hurdles that women face in the workplace. In addition to on-the-job issues, women can face discrimination in how they are treated following a workplace injury. According to recent news reports, Californian women who apply for workers’ compensation following an injury on the job receive lower compensation […]

At around the same time at which Google recently released its widely-panned diversity figures, the Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba ramped up preparations for its highly anticipated IPO, and in doing so, provided investors details into the inner workings of the company. Alibaba revealed that a surprising 9 out of its 27 partners are female. This […]

In a belated celebration of Valentine’s Day, I want to tell a love story. But don’t worry, this won’t get mawkish. This is a story of modern love, of commercial love, of a four-letter (sometimes, three-letter) slogan (“love” or “LUV”) perverted to discriminatory ends. (This also an aviation tale, and if you haven’t read my […]

I attended the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on Young v. UPS earlier this month and was very excited to talk with Plaintiff Peggy Young’s lawyer, Sharon Gustafson, about the case.  Sharon will be among the speakers at an upcoming panel I am hosting, sponsored by the Women’s Bar Association and Sanford Heisler Kimpel. Kate: For the […]

I am working with the D.C. Women’s Bar Association to host a panel discussion on January 29 about pregnancy discrimination and Young v. UPS, which was argued before the Supreme Court earlier this week.  (Blogger’s note: for more information on the case, check out Tuesday’s blogpost. Panelists will include a lawyer representing Peggy Young; a lawyer advising companies […]

President Obama’s announcement of executive action on immigration last week set off a chain of political chatter– “does the president have the authority?”; “how will Republicans respond?”; “what does this mean for 2016?” The politics of policy were front-and-center; the benefits of action, pushed to the periphery. So I wanted to devote this post to […]

Last year, Google unveiled a new initiative to combat implicit bias in the workplace. The initiative has garnered widespread interest in the wake of recent disclosures by several leading tech companies, including Google, regarding the diversity (or lack thereof) of their workforces—a problem my colleague Lizzy Gropman discussed last week. The concept of implicit or […]