Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: The Focus on Women’s Issues is Stronger than Ever

Lately there seem to be more and more stories about women standing up and drawing attention to inequality in the workplace. These issues range from unequal pay, to work environments that serve to harass and belittle women, to a lack of fair opportunities for promotion to positions of leadership. Right now there is trial in San Francisco relating to a high profile employment discrimination suit brought by a former partner of Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm. The testimony in the trial sheds light on the “good old boys” environment that many women are complaining about. A former prosecutor has brought suit against the district attorneys office in Suffolk County Massachusetts for gender bias, claiming she was paid less than her male counterparts.

And these aren’t just isolated cases. A gender discrimination lawsuit against Goldman Sachs was back in the news yesterday when a magistrate recommended denial of their claim to certify a class. The women have alleged that work related events were held at strip clubs.

This focus around women’s issues isn’t going away anytime soon. The Clinton Foundation released the No Ceilings Report this week that is the result of a study conducted in partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Economic Intelligence Unit. The Clintons announced this No Ceiling Initiative aimed at closing the gender gap and promoting more women into position of leadership. Then yesterday, the United Nations held its 59th Commission on the Status of Women and urged the private sector to help close the gender gap.

Even movie stars are getting in on the action. During Patricia Arquette’s Oscar acceptance speech she said “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, its our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America!” My favorite part of the speech was watching Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez cheering her on and fisting pumping in the air from the audience. So women in law are clearly not alone. There is disparity in pay and treatment across the professional board from law, to Silicon Valley, to the gaming industry, to engineering, and yes even in Hollywood.

Many naysayers thought the conversation that got reignited when Sheryl Sandberg wrote Lean In would extinguish as quickly as it started. But in fact the opposite has happened, it has spread like wildfire. It is now in a soon-to-be Presidential candidate’s best interest to openly take up women’s issues and gender inequality in pursuit of the White House. What does that tell us? That collectively our voices are strong and powerful. Let us not forget that.