This Women’s History Month, NCLEJ proudly celebrates the trailblazing women who have made an enormous impact in the fight for social, racial, and economic justice. We follow in the footsteps of incredible women like Rosa Parks, Fanny Lou Hamer, and New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and we honor their contributions to American history. We’d also like to recognize the many incredible women-led partner organizations and campaigns with whom we work to advance our mission, including One Fair Wage, Ain’t I A Woman, Black Love Resists in the Rust, Brownsville Green Justice, the Indigenous Kinship Collective, and so many more.

Women’s rights are human rights, and we have proudly fought to dismantle institutional sexism and gender discrimination for decades. We are determined to secure greater rights, benefits, and protections for low-income women, immigrant women, and women of color – groups that are among the most marginalized in the United States. In 1968, NCLEJ participated in King v. Smith, a major Supreme Court decision that protected the privacy rights of low-income single mothers while receiving public benefits. In 1979, we won Califano v. Westcott, a case which ensured that families’ access to public benefits could not be restricted based on the gender of the parent who had lost their income. In 2004, we won a major legal victory when the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals determined that New York City workfare workers may sue for sexual harassment and discrimination.

More recently, we’ve partnered with groups like One Fair Wage and Equal Pay Today to eliminate subminimum wages and gender pay gaps, which disempower low-income women and make them especially vulnerable to sexual harassment. And we’ve strongly advocated for better pay and working conditions for home care workers, the majority of whom are immigrant women of color.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade means that legal fights to protect and expand access to abortion at the state level are more critical than ever, and we are determined to use our more than 50 years of legal expertise and experience to fight back against attacks on women in every corner of our country. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, let us renew our commitment to dismantling barriers to opportunity for women, combating gender discrimination, and fighting for a more just and equal society.

Thank you,