By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Last week, Pentagon officials got a few steps closer to recognizing what those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have known for years : servicewomen fight on the battlefield alongside their male counterparts , despite a longstanding rule barring them [...]

By “Dara” Lately the water cooler conversations at my religiously affiliated nonprofit social service agency have been focused on trying to understand the new HHS contraceptive mandate . My younger, female coworkers and enlightened male coworkers are giddy with anticipation. For as long as any of us have been working here, we haven’t been able to get coverage for [...]

By Alicia Gay, ACLU Today’s announcement from President Obama that his administration will modify its policy on contraception insurance coverage to allow religiously affiliated organizations to opt out of paying for contraceptive coverage and instead have insurance companies directly provide coverage should end the recent storm of controversy surrounding the birth control rule. The administration’s actions should lay [...]

By Amanda Dysart & Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit hears oral argument in Davis v. Cintas , one of the first nationwide class action discrimination cases to be argued since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes last June. The court will decide whether [...]

By Amanda Dysart & Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit hears oral argument in Davis v. Cintas , one of the first nationwide class action discrimination cases to be argued since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes last June. The court will decide whether [...]

By Andrew Beck, Staff Attorney, Reproductive Freedom Project On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took the unprecedented step of overruling the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow the emergency contraceptive Plan B One-Step to be sold over-the-counter to consumers of all ages. Plan B One-Step has been approved for over-the-counter sale to [...]

Mie Lewis, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project In recent years, the number of public schools segregating their students by sex has ballooned, despite mounting evidence that single-sex programs don’t improve academic performance and instead perpetuate sex stereotypes. But things are changing. This week, yet another school district — this time in Tallapoosa County, Alabama — agreed [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project It may seem obvious that all workers are entitled to a work environment free from sex discrimination and to the wages guaranteed to them by law. But for laborers who come to this country to work temporarily under the H-2B visa program, the ability to enforce these basic rights [...]

By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, Staff Attorney, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project The people have spoken: Twice in South Dakota; twice in Colorado ; and now in Mississippi. Red state, blue state — it doesn’t make a difference. The message to government is clear: Women’s lives matter. Respect for women, respect for their decisions about their health and families, respect for their [...]

By Ariela Migdal, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project According to a new study , sexual harassment, including unwanted sexual touching and sexual coercion as well as milder behaviors, is a regular feature of going to school for a significant number of American middle- and high-school students. The American Association of University Women released a study yesterday, surveying nearly [...]

By Ronald E. Jackson, Executive Director, Citizens for Better Schools Here in Alabama and across the South, our public schools — and the children who attend them — are under continuous assault. Cuts in state funding, school closings and increases in school and class sizes are just some of the ways the quality of education for our [...]

By Deborah Jeon, Legal Director, ACLU of Maryland This week, the ACLU called on Baltimore City to stop leaving women out in the cold. Literally. When the city’s only emergency homeless shelter is full, it provides “overflow” shelter beds to men — and not women . Turned away, single women seeking shelter have been left to fend for themselves, [...]

My name is Hope. I am survivor of domestic violence. To protect myself, I fled from my husband and changed my name and social security number. I have sole custody of two children from this abusive relationship. I never changed my children’s names or social security numbers because the courts require notifying both parents of the [...]

By Ashley On October 1, 2011, I sat on the bathroom floor of the LSAT test center pumping milk for my 5 month old son. I felt dirty, embarrassed, stressed, and alone. Things no one should feel as they are in the midst of taking one of the most important exams of their life. An exam that [...]

By Molly Houlahan, New Haven, Connecticut October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and this week the ACLU in conjunction with some of our youth clients and V-Girls , a global network of youth activists and advocates empowering themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world, is presenting a blog series. “Your School Your [...]

By Mbali Khumalo, Johannesburg, South Africa October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and this week the ACLU in conjunction with some of our youth clients and V-Girls , a global network of youth activists and advocates empowering themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world, is presenting a blog series. "Your School Your [...]

By Busi Mkhumbuzi, Soweto, South Africa October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and this week the ACLU in conjunction with some of our youth clients and V-Girls , a global network of youth activists and advocates empowering themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world, is presenting a blog series. "Your School Your [...]

By “Faith” December 6th, 2010, was a day in my life I will never understand, and probably never come to grips with. I thought that a school was the safest place to be — it turned out that I was never more wrong in my life. You see, that was the day I was raped at school [...]

By Galen Sherwin, Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project When it comes to public education, there is no doubt that we are in a crisis, particularly when it comes to low-income and minority students. Unfortunately, the search for solutions has led to a movement across the country to establish single-sex classrooms and schools, many of which rely [...]

By Galen Sherwin, Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Today, as we celebrate Women’s Equality Day , commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, I find myself reflecting on a central lesson of the struggle for suffrage: the power to effect political change through collective action is critical to achieving equality. There have [...]