AAUW Current Topics Briefing #1
May 16, 2008

Purpose:
AAUW’s Legal Advocacy Fund was conceived and implemented as a fund that aggregates member contributions for investment in activities that prevent and combat sex discrimination and promote gender equity.

Concept:
The establishment and implementation of LAF reflects AAUW’s philosophical commitment to advancing gender equity that is well captured in our new Value Promise:

By joining AAUW, you belong to a community that breaks through
educational and economic barriers so that all women have a fair chance.

Approach:
Over the years, the LAF implementation strategy – to provide members resources, tools, and tactics to address a wide range of gender equity challenges through a three-pronged strategy:

• Building an extensive online resource library of accurate background information, legal facts, statistics and credible outside resources on issues of sex discrimination.
• Creating LAF Campus Outreach Programs as AAUW Branch-Campus collaborations to prevent, identify and combat sex discrimination, advance gender equity and empower women to protect and advocate for themselves.
• Providing financial and moral support for legal cases involving gender equity through:

1. Financial case support for plaintiffs in sex discrimination cases in the educational arena;
2. Moral support for plaintiffs seeking redress for workplace discrimination, such as, Lilly Ledbetter, with whom AAUW has worked tirelessly on Capitol Hill for passage of legislation to restore the rights of pay discrimination victims decimated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber.
3. Expertise support – AAUW participates frequently as amicus curiae in cases affecting women’s rights specifically and civil rights generally arising in a wide array of settings
   

Summary of the LAF Transition:
For the past three years, AAUW has been engaged in a Strategic Process (SP); the future of LAF has always been a feature of this process.

• The SP has involved extensive input from members (25,000 pieces) and professionals (consultants in organizational dynamics and viability, legal, etc.) provided to inform the Boards for their action at the February 2008 Joint Board Meeting.
• The Spring Outlook 2007 included an insert announcement alerting members to SP discussion at the Convention, and a subsequent Fall Outlook article further elucidated issues for the membership.
• At the February 2008 Joint meeting of the AAUW and Educational Foundation Boards, the decision was made to transition LAF to a strategy consistent with the guidance of members and the AAUW Strategic Priorities and that aligns more closely to our Value Promise of breaking down educational and economic barriers so that ALL women have a fair chance.

Actions of the EF Board with respect to LAF: (LAF had already been moved to the Foundation, making the EF Board the voting body.)

• Staff will work with branches to expand the marketing of Campus Outreach Programs to encourage more branches and colleges to participate.
• Staff will continue to expand the online LAF Resource (FMLA is the next priority area).
• LAF will continue direct case funding support for current plaintiffs under existing procedures through December 31, 2008, but will not post for new plaintiff applicants and will not review any current new applicants.
  

Programmatic elements:
Current and past plaintiffs:

• LAF will continue funding current LAF plaintiffs under established distribution procedures. We currently have funds available for the remaining ten of the 14 plaintiffs funded in 2007-8, though that number will continue to dwindle as cases terminate over the calendar year 2008.
• LAF will continue to provide travel grants and stipends to LAF speakers this year and into the future as requested by branches, and will work proactively with potential speakers to encourage their participation, including those whom we support as amicus curiae.
  

Plans going forward:

• AAUW will expand our LAF focus beyond the academic sphere to the wider workplace in concert with our Value Promise that we will break down educational and economic barriers so that ALL women will have a fair chance.
• AAUW will continue, and expand, our long-term support as amicus curiae in gender discrimination and other civil rights cases, seeking, in particular, workplace-based cases.
  
• AAUW will work closely with other respected organizations that are active in the gender equity arena to identify key cases with significant issues that align with our mission and would benefit by our expertise and credibility.
  
• As AAUW expands our LAF vision to include protecting the rights of all women, we plan to focus our direct case support strategically, seeking cases that address significant issues that will clearly will impact our fight for pay equity and workplaces free of sex discrimination.
  
• AAUW will look to organizational partners and collaborators to help us target cases in which AAUW’s voice will make a difference. 
  
• AAUW has been in the fight to combat sex discrimination from the first; but with the Supreme Court narrowing our rights, and pushing hard to rescind the gains we’ve made, we really are going to have to fight to defend that legacy -- strategic litigation will be critical weapon for us over the next few years.
  
  • This will be a shift for LAF, which has focused more on deserving individuals than on landmark cases with precedent-setting potential to make a difference for all women.
  • AAUW has always had a powerful voice in the sex discrimination arena, and we need to use it to reinforce cases that will hold our ground and lead us forward.
  • Our model for this strategy is the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in the fifties that carefully selected the cases to ensure maximum impact. They knew exactly what they were doing when they chose to champion Brown v. Board of Education. That model for deliberate case selection based on critical issues that predict precedent-setting change will help guide us as we select strong cases for our support.
    

AAUW member financial support will continue to be essential.

• To focus on strategic litigation, landmark cases that make a difference for all of us, we will need to be financially prepared. 
  
• In the past, we have:
  • provided limited funding for worthy individuals who have suffered from discrimination in their academic workplaces,
  • selected cases based on applications that came to us, and
  • financially supported only those that arose in the academic context.
  • Relatively few of these cases were precedent-setting in a national context, although LAF’s impact on college campuses around the country is clear.
    

Summary:
Our members’ support is critical! If we are to broaden our focus beyond the academic arena and target our resources to cases that establish significant legal precedents, we must create a fund that will support a significant attack when the "big case" comes along. We will still need to support LAF travel grants and program management, but the real need will be for a “war chest” that we can call upon for strategic litigation.

There is a misperception among some about the staff and overhead costs of LAF currently and in the future.  Actually, these expenses are – and will remain -- a very small portion of the LAF budget. The lion’s share of our budget has always been programmatic, and that will continue to be the case as we move toward more strategic litigation.

Your continued help and funding support for LAF is essential if we are to leverage our strength, reputation, credibility and resources for strategic litigation that will truly help us galvanize our commitment to gender equity and fulfill our promise to break through educational and economic barriers so ALL women will have a fair chance.

This briefing is the first in our AAUW Current Topics Briefing Series issued by Linda Hallman, CAE, Executive Director.

 

Review the complete briefing series